Bengal: Congress Gets Its First MLA As Bayron Biswas Wins Sagardighi Bypoll

For the first time since independence, Congress and the Left Front failed to open their accounts in the West Bengal assembly in the 2021 assembly elections.

Congress' Winning Candidate Bayron Biswas (File Photo)

The Congress earned a seat in the current Bengal legislature on Thursday when its candidate Bayron Biswas defeated the TMC's nearest rival by 22,980 votes in the Sagardighi bypoll.

According to the Electoral Commission (EC) website, Biswas, who has the support of the Left, received 87,667 votes after 16 rounds of counting.

According to the EC website, Debasish Banerjee of the TMC received 64,681 votes, while Dilip Saha of the BJP received 25,815 votes.

Following the death of state minister Subrata Saha in December last year, a byelection to the constituency was required, which was considered a prestige fight for state Congress president Adhir Chowdhury in his home district of Murshidabad.

Chowdhury skipped the Congress plenary session in order to focus on his campaigning in Murshidabad, his hometown. The party contested the election alongside the Left Front.

Taking a swipe at the ruling party TMC, the state president said that the TMC had deceived Muslims and that Muslims throughout Bengal were aware of TMC's role as a Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) agent. 

West Bengal | TMC earlier has defeated Congress many times by torturing people with the help of police. As I said Congress is not going to lose & today it is proved, Congress is a party that defeats: Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary, Murshidabad pic.twitter.com/Ml1FzBBP9K

— ANI (@ANI) March 2, 2023

For the first time since independence, Congress and the Left Front failed to open their accounts in the West Bengal assembly in the 2021 assembly elections.

The TMC, which has held the seat since 2011, won by a margin of approximately 50,000 votes in 2021, gaining more than 50 per cent of all votes cast, compared to the BJP's 24 per cent and the Congress-Left alliance's 19 per cent.

Debashish Banerjee of the TMC, Dilip Saha of the BJP, and Bayron Biswas of the Congress were the main contenders.

The byelection to West Bengal's Sagardighi assembly constituency in Murshidabad district on February 27 was peaceful, with more than 73 per cent of the 2.3 lakh voters exercising their rights.