Bhabanipur Bypolls: Mamata secures CM's post with a record margin

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee won a landslide victory from home turf Bhabanipur which was crucial for her to continue as the Chief Minister following the defeat at Nandigram. She won with a record margin of 58,832 votes over her BJP rival.

"Want to thank the people of Bhabanipur and West Bengal for the election result, reacted Mamata soon after the results came out. She also added that the people of Bhabanipur gave a befitting reply to the conspiracy that was hatched in Nandigram.

The Chief Minister polled more votes than in 2011 at the Bhabanipur constituency in south Kolkata. The seat was vacated for her by state minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay.

The Trinamool is also in the lead at Murshidabad's Samserganj and Jangipur seats, where by-elections were held after the deaths of two candidates.

In Samserganj, Trinamool candidate Amirul Islam is leading by 3,768 votes after the fifth round of counting. Jangipur's Trinamool candidate Jakir Hossain is leading by 15,643 votes after the second round of counting.

Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee announced the names of the candidates for three of the four assembly constituencies that are going for the by-elections on October 30.

"Our candidate from Khardha will be Sovondeb Chattopadhyay, for Shantipur in Nadia the candidate is Broj Kishore Goswami and for Dinhata in Coochbehar the candidate will be Udayan Guhaa.

The chief minister said that the name of the candidate for Gosaba in South 24 Parganas is yet to be decided.

Sovondeb Chattopadhyay who won from Bhabanipur by a margin of 28,189 votes in the assembly election resigned to make room for Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee who lost to Suvendu Adhikari in the assembly election had to win within six months to retain her position as the chief minister of the state.

In two other constituencies - Jangipur and Samserganj the Trinamool Congress candidates have maintained their lead. Jakir Hossain who is contesting from the Jangipur assembly constituency is also leading by a margin of 57,935 votes after the sixteenth round of counting. Trinamool Congress candidate from Samserganj Amirul Islam is also leading by a margin of 17,863 votes after the fourteenth round of counting.

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