Abhishek sets state record with 7.1-lakh vote victory
Times of India | 5 June 2024
Kolkata: Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday won the Diamond Harbour seat by 7.1 lakh votes, the highest ever margin clocked in Bengal so far.
Banerjee polled a phenomenal 10,48,230 lakh votes and smashed the victory margin record held so far by CPM’s late Anil Basu, who had won by a margin of 5,92,502 from Arambagh in the 2004 Lok Sabha poll.Banerjee’s closest rival — BJP candidate Abhijit Das Bobby — got 3.3 lakh votes while CPM’s Pratik Ur Rahaman came third with 86,953 votes.
Shankar Lalwani, the BJP MP from Indore, won by the highest margin — 11.7 lakh — in India in a contest where 2.2 lakh voters opted for NOTA.
Lok Sabha ElectionsAssembly ElectionsParty ViewAlliance View.cls-1, .cls-2, .cls-3 { fill: none; } .cls-1, .cls-4, .cls-5, .cls-6 { stroke-width: 0px; } .cls-2 { stroke: #b17979; stroke-miterlimit: 10; stroke-width: 1.2px; } .cls-2, .cls-3 { stroke-linecap: round; } .cls-7 { fill: #595959; font-family: Verdana, Verdana; font-size: 10px; } .cls-7, .cls-8, .cls-9, .cls-10, .cls-11, .cls-12 { isolation: isolate; } .cls-8 { fill: #000; font-family: ArialMT, Arial; } .cls-8, .cls-9, .cls-10 { font-size: 12px; } .cls-3 { stroke: #ccc; } .cls-4, .cls-9, .cls-10 { fill: #1a1a1a; } .cls-4, .cls-11 { display: none; } .cls-9, .cls-10 { font-family: Verdana-Bold, Verdana; font-weight: 700; } .cls-10 { letter-spacing: 0em; } .cls-6 { fill: #ccc; }Majority: 272543543Seats: 543 L + WNDA WONNDA293INDIA234OTH16View MapView DetailsSource: PvalueBanerjee did not speak to the media but flashed a victory sign as he went from his Harish Chatterjee Road home to Kalighat to meet CM Mamata Banerjee. CM Banerjee said: “I congratulate Abhishek for his record victory. He has polled the most valid votes in India.” A happy CM Banerjee also held Abhishek closer when both flashed the victory sign for the shutterbugs.
In 2019, Banerjee had won by a margin of over 3 lakh votes, defeating BJP candidate Nilanjan Roy. In 2014, his margin was a modest 71,298 over CPM candidate Abul Hasnat.
The huge victory margin came as a surprise even though Trinamool trounced BJP in 29 seats out of 42 in Bengal. Banerjee himself had sounded confident of a comfortable victory for his party after he cast his vote last Saturday, claiming that they would perform much better than the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The trend was clear after three rounds of counting when Banerjee took a lead of 1 lakh. The margin kept leaping as the rounds progressed. Trinamool counting agents went into a celebratory mood once the margin crossed 3 lakh at 1.30pm.
Talking to TOI, a party worker, infuriated at the exit-poll predictions, said: “The result is a slap on exit poll. People of Bengal are with Mamata Banerjee.” Trinamool counting agent Ankita Ghosh from Pujali said: “We have come here with a huge stock of green abir and are just waiting for our leaders to give us the green signal to start celebrations.”
Earlier in the day, BJP candidate Das stepped out of the counting centre with his agents, alleging that the Trinamool agents had attacked them. He staged a sit-in in front of the venue at Budge Budge. He also wrote a letter to the chief election commissioner protesting and boycotting the counting process. “The poll was nothing but a farce in Diamond Harbour. My name and symbol were covered with tapes by Trinamool to mislead our voters,” he alleged.
CPM candidate Pratikur Rahaman left Hastings House at 11.30am when Banerjee was leading by over 2 lakh votes. Rahaman said: “It’s not a vote since Trinamool attacked our supporters and they were beaten up brutally. This is the reality of democracy in Diamond Harbour.”