Bypoll results 2019: Clean sweep for TMC in West Bengal; BJP takes Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand

The Karimpur, Kharagpur Sadar and Kaliaganj Assembly seats in West Bengal and Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh seat went to polls on Monday. TMC bagged all the three seats while BJP won in Uttarakhand.

Kolkata/ Dehradun: West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress has won all three Assembly bypolls, bagging Kaliaganj, Kharagpur-Sadar and Karimpur, and setting the stage for a blockbuster contest with the BJP in 2021.

Tapan Deb Sinha of the Trinamool Congress won the Kaliaganj seat in a close contest, defeating his nearest BJP rival Kamal Chandra Sarkar by 2,418 votes.

TMC's Pradip Sarkar wrested Kharagpur Sadar seat from the BJP. He defeated Premchandra Jha of the saffron party by a comfortable margin of 20,788 votes.

TMC nominee for Karimpur Bimalendu Sinha Roy won against BJP rival Jaiprakash Majumdar, retaining the seat for his party. TMC's Mohua Mitra had bagged Karimpur in the last polls before she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Krishnanagar.

This is for the first time that the TMC has bagged the Kaliaganj and Kharagpur seats.

Dedicating the party's victory to the people of West Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said voters had ‘paid back’ the BJP for its ‘arrogance of power’.

"We dedicate this victory to the people of Bengal. The BJP is getting paid back for its arrogance of power and for insulting the people of Bengal," she said.

Meanwhile, the BJP has won the Pithoragarh seat in Uttarakhand by 3267 votes. The four seats went to polls on Monday.

The Pithoragarh bypoll was necessitated after the death of three-time MLA and former minister Prakash Pant.