West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari appears to have taken Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s pre-poll call to “defeat Mamata in her own turf” literally. Not only did he unseat former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from Kolkata’s Bhabanipur constituency, but he also defeated her in the very ward where she resides, according to the Election Commission’s booth-wise results data.
The Election Commission’s booth-wise data underlined the scale of Suvendu Adhikari’s sweep in Bhabanipur, where he led in 207 of the constituency’s 267 booths and defeated Mamata Banerjee even in Ward No. 73, home to her Kalighat residence, securing 8,932 votes against her 4,284.
Ahead of the West Bengal Assembly polls, Amit Shah told BJP workers that his message to Suvendu Adhikari was clear: “Mamata ko unke ghar mein ja kar harana hai” (defeat Mamata in her own turf).
“I told Suvendu Adhikari that Mamata ko unke ghar mein ja kar harana hai,” Shah had said.
A resident of Kanthi, nearly 150 kilometres away from Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence, Suvendu Adhikari had no prior political base or organisational presence in the south Kolkata constituency. Even so, he ended up securing more than double the votes in her ward, literally fulfilling Amit Shah’s promise to defeat her in her own turf.
While Suvendu Adhikari secured 63 per cent of the vote share, Mamata Banerjee managed only 30 per cent.
What was more astonishing was Suvendu’s margin of victory across Bhabanipur where there were several wards where Mamata could not even garner 50 votes.
Each booth in Bhabanipur had roughly 400 to 700 voters. Yet, at Booth No. 14, Mamata Banerjee received just 43 votes, 42 at Booth No. 16, 41 at Booth No. 20, 45 at Booth No. 24, 40 at Booth No. 77, 41 at Booth No. 89, and only 31 at Booth No. 105. She secured 44 votes at Booth No. 149, 46 at Booth No. 158, 29 at Booth No. 176, 40 at Booth No. 242, 28 at Booth No. 249, and 30 at Booth No. 263.
Back in 2021, Mamata Banerjee had won all seven wards in the Bhabanipur bypoll after being defeated by Suvendu Adhikari in his stronghold of Nandigram. This time, however, Mamata lost her grip over Bhabanipur, securing 58,812 votes against Suvendu’s 73,917.
Source: India Today
