BJP’s ‘cherry on the cake’: How Falta repoll win reinforces saffron surge in West Bengal | India News
New Delhi: The BJP has won West Bengal’s Phalta Assembly constituency re-poll, with its candidate Devanshu Panda getting more than one lakh votes over his nearest rival as counting for the re-poll held on May 21 took place on Sunday.Click here for live updates
According to the Election Commission’s (ECI) website, after all 22 rounds were counted, Panda secured 149,666 votes, while Sambhu Nath Kurmi of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was a distant second with 40,645 votes.With this win, the BJP’s tally in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly returns to 207 seats. The party had originally won 207 seats as well, but Subvendu Adhikari – now the state’s first BJP chief minister – vacated his Nandigram seat and retained Bhavanipur, where he defeated Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee, his predecessor as chief minister.A Phalta victory would be the cherry on the cake for the BJP, not only because it was a TMC-dominated constituency, but also because of the events that preceded the victory.The ‘Diamond Harbor Model’ has collapsedFalta constituency falls under Diamond Harbor Lok Sabha constituency in South 24 Parganas district. The TMC has won three consecutive assembly elections (2011, 2016 and 2021), while Diamond Harbor is represented in the Lok Sabha by the party’s number two candidate Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of Mamata Banerjee, who has won three consecutive general elections from the constituency (2014, 2019 and 2024).Abhishek got 40% of the vote in 2014, 56% and 68% in the next two elections respectively.On May 2, two days before the counting of votes in West Bengal, he issued a challenge to the “Union of India” to “give even a jolt to my Diamond Harbor model”.Abhishek also made provocative statements during the campaign.After the Trinamool’s defeat, the new BJP-led government reduced its security cover. Also, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has issued notices to 17 properties associated with it for alleged building violations and unauthorized construction.KMC Mayor Firhad Hakim, a senior TMC leader.‘Singham’ vs ‘Pushpa’There has been an interesting side fight between Trinamool strongman and its eventual candidate Jahangir Khan and Uttar Pradesh-cadre police officer Ajay Pal Sharma, who was sent to West Bengal by the ECI as a police observer.Sharma was nicknamed “Singham” by the media after his portrayal of a police officer by Ajay Devgn in the film “Singham”.After Sharma was seen in a viral video warning Khan’s family, the TMC leader called himself “Pushp” – Allu Arjun’s strong-smuggler character in two “Pushp” films.‘Pushp’ gives upIn a development that confirmed the result of the botched re-poll before a single vote was cast, Khan, an aide of Abhishek Banerjee, “withdrew” the contest two days before the election. He claimed that he stepped down after the CM assured him of a “special package” for Adhikari constituencies.However, the announcement comes amid FIRs filed against Khan, prompting him to seek — and obtain — protection from arrest by moving to the Calcutta High Court. The move comes just two days after Adhikari commented that he would “personally handle” Khan’s case.Despite Khan’s “withdrawal”, his name remained on the voting machine, as the deadline for withdrawal of nomination had already passed.“Pushpa” stood fourth in the six-person competition alongside the NOTA (none of the above) option.Why was the re-poll held?The ECI, on April 29, ordered re-polling in 285 polling stations in Falta due to allegations of large-scale irregularities in the second and final phase of the election. In several booths, tapes were found with the names of BJP candidates on the voting machines.
