Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate Alifa Ahmed has won the Kaliganj Assembly bypoll in West Bengal’s Nadia district by a massive margin of 50,049 votes, defeating her nearest BJP rival, Ashish Ghosh. The by-election was held following the death of her father and former MLA Nasiruddin Ahmed in February this year.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Alifa secured 1,02,759 votes, while BJP’s Ashish Ghosh received 52,710 votes. The Congress-Left-supported candidate, Kabil Uddin Shaikh, came third with 28,348 votes.
Though Alifa received around 9,000 votes less than her father’s 1,11,696 votes in 2021, her winning margin increased. Nasiruddin had won by 46,987 votes in the last election, whereas Alifa surpassed that, seemingly due to a split in votes between BJP and Congress-Left candidates.
Outside the counting centre, Alifa thanked voters for their support. She said, “This victory is because of people’s love and faith in Mamata Banerjee’s development politics.”
Responding to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s claim that Hindus didn’t vote for TMC, Alifa said, “I do not agree. We received significant leads from some Hindu-majority areas.”
She added, “We did not target votes from any particular community. We approached all voters. The results show people don’t support communal division in Bengal.”
With PTI inputs.
