Mamata expresses gratitude for Trinamool's bypoll success

Kolkata, Feb 16 (IANS) West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee Monday expressed gratitude to the people after Trinamool Congress retained Krishnaganj assembly seat and established a substantial lead in Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency where bypolls were held last week.

"We are grateful to Maa, Mati, Manush (mother, land, people) for again giving us their trust and love with this big win. We will continue to work for them," Banerjee tweeted.

The Trinamool Congress chief also used the opportunity to thank the Election Commission (EC) for ensuring peaceful elections where voters could express themselves freely.

In Krishnaganj in Nadia district, Trinamool candidate Satyajit Biswas won by a margin of over 37,000 votes against his closest rival Manabendra Roy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The seat had fallen vacant due to Trinamool lawmaker Sushil Biswas's death.

While Congress' Nityagopal Mondal lost his deposit, CPI-M's Apurba Biswas secured far lesser votes this time as compared to last year.

In Bongaon, Trinamool candidate Mamatabala Thakur continued consolidating her lead over nearest rival Subrata Thakur of the BJP, surging ahead by nearly 1.5 lakh votes after the 15th round of counting.

She was leading in all seven assembly segments of the primarily rural constituency comprising parts of North 24 Parganas and Nadia districts.

The bypoll was necessitated by the death of Trinamool MP Kapil Krishna Thakur. Mamatabala is his widow and Subrata his nephew.

The electoral success comes at a time when the state's ruling party finds itself cornered over the multi-crore rupee Saradha scam in which several of its leaders have been arrested.

The Trinamool is also battling internal strife with one-time second-in-command and general secretary Mukul Roy distancing himself from the party.

Roy, a former railway minister, has seemingly fallen out with Banerjee after his interrogation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Saradha scam.