Falta repoll: BJP candidate wins by a margin of 1,09,021 votes, CPI(M) finishes second
Results for the Falta Assembly repoll in West Bengal were declared after all rounds of counting concluded on Sunday, with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Debangshu Panda winning by a landslide margin of 1,09,021 votes.
Panda secured a total of 1,49,666 votes, while CPI(M) candidate Sambhunath Kurmi finished second with 40,645 votes.
Congress candidate Abdur Razzak came third with 10,084 votes, while Trinamool Congress candidate Jahangir Khan ended fourth with 7,783 votes.
The deposits of both the Congress and Trinamool Congress candidates were forfeited.
The Falta repoll results are unique for two reasons. For the first time since the Trinamool Congress was founded in January 1998, its candidate finished fourth in an election.
Secondly, for the first time since 2011 — which marked the end of the 34-year Left Front regime and the beginning of the Trinamool Congress’ rule in the state — a Trinamool Congress candidate forfeited his deposit in an election.
The repoll in Falta was conducted on May 21.
With Panda’s victory in Falta, the BJP’s tally in the 294-member West Bengal Assembly has risen to 208 seats. The Trinamool Congress now holds 80 seats, while the Congress and Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) have two seats each. CPI(M) and the All India Secular Front (AISF) hold one seat each.
The outcome stands in sharp contrast to the results in Falta during both the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
In the 2021 Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress candidate Shankar Kumar Nashkar won the Falta seat by a margin of 41,000 votes. Falta is one of the seven Assembly constituencies under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency.
Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress general secretary and nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has represented the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat three times.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Falta Assembly segment gave Banerjee a lead of around 1,20,000 votes, which opposition parties had described as a mockery of the electoral process.
Polling for the Falta Assembly constituency was held on April 29 during the second phase of the recently concluded two-phase Assembly elections in the state.
Several complaints of alleged electoral malpractices were reported on polling day. At several booths, the EVM buttons corresponding to BJP candidates were allegedly covered with white tape. Hundreds of voters also staged protests after claiming they were prevented from voting by supporters of Jahangir Khan.
Subsequently, special poll observer Subrata Gupta, who is currently serving as an adviser to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, visited Falta and conducted an inquiry. Based on his findings, the Election Commission of India (ECI) ordered a repoll across the entire Falta Assembly constituency.
–IANS
