Shatrughan Sinha breaks Asansol jinx: Why it's a historic win for Trinamool Congress
Sinha won with a margin of more than 2 lakh votes against his rival Agnimitra Paul (fashion designer-turned politician) of the BJP.
Movie actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha broke the “Asansol jinx” by becoming the first Trinamool Congress candidate to win from the Lok Sabha seat in the bypoll, the result of which was declared on Saturday. The party's candidate Babul Supriyo also won the prestigious Ballygunge constituency in the assembly bypoll.
In Asansol, former Union minister Sinha won with a margin of more than 2 lakh votes against his rival Agnimitra Paul (fashion designer-turned politician) of the BJP.
The BJP had won the seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The by-polls, which took place on April 12, were necessitated as Supriyo resigned as the MP of Asansol after switching over to the TMC from the BJP.
Supporters of TMC's Sinha and BJP's Paul traded "Jai Bangla" and "Jai Sri Ram" slogans but stopped short of clashing as police stepped in.
BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said it is a general trend that the party in power in the state generally wins the by-elections. "But I can assure you that we will win back Asansol in 2024. We would defeat TMC's reign of terror in the next Lok Sabha polls," he said.
Despite tasting electoral success in different pockets of the state, the TMC had never been able to win from Asansol previously.
Between 1957 and 1967, the Asansol Lok Sabha seat belonged to the Congress. From 1967 to 1971, the Lok Sabha constituency was under the control of Samyukta Socialist Party. From 1971 to 1980, CPI(M) held the seat, before the Congress made a comeback and held the crucial constituency till 1989. From 1989 to 2014, the seat belonged to the CPI(M).
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won the seat for the first time when Supriyo got elected from Asansol. Supriyo won again on a BJP ticket in 2019 following which he also became a minister in the Narendra Modi-led Union government.
However, soon after the 2021 assembly polls in West Bengal, Supriyo left the BJP and joined the Mamata Banerjee-led party, resigning as the Asansol Lok Sabha member, which necessitated the bypolls.
Paul, who was a sitting BJP legislator from the Asansol (South) Assembly constituency. The CPI(M) had fielded Partha Mukherjee from Asansol.
Paul the party had accepted defeat in bypolls to the Asansol Lok Sabha seat and the Ballygunge assembly constituency.
(With inputs from agencies)
