How Did Trinamool's Alifa Ahmed Achieve Such a Huge Victory in the Assembly Bypolls?

Synopsis
Key Takeaways
- Alifa Ahmed's victory margin of 49,755 votes indicates strong support.
- The election highlights the consolidation of Muslim votes for the Trinamool Congress.
- Alifa's win surpasses her late father's margin from the previous elections.
- Kaliganj remains a key constituency for communal harmony in West Bengal.
- The results signal a shift towards developmental politics over communal issues.
Kolkata, June 23 (NationPress) Trinamool Congress candidate Alifa Ahmed achieved a stunning victory in the bypoll held for the Kaliganj Assembly constituency located in Nadia district of West Bengal.
The Election Commission of India confirmed her win after completing 23 rounds of vote counting, with an impressive margin of 49,755 votes.
According to the ECI, Ahmed garnered 1,02,179 votes, while the BJP’s Ashish Ghosh secured the second place with 52,424 votes. The third position went to the Left Front-supported Congress candidate Kabil Uddin Shaikh, who received 28,262 votes.
In fourth place was NOTA, which received 2,500 votes.
This outcome illustrates that the votes in favor of the Trinamool Congress candidate surpassed the total votes for both the BJP and Congress candidates combined, along with NOTA.
As anticipated, Alifa Ahmed exceeded the victory margin of her late father, former legislator Nasiruddin Ahmed, who had won in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections by a margin of 45,987 votes against BJP’s Abhijit Ghosh.
The necessity for the Kaliganj bypoll arose following the passing of Nasiruddin Ahmed in February this year.
Upon confirming her victory, Alifa Ahmed expressed to reporters that the residents of Kaliganj voted for progress and against attempts to create a communal divide.
“The people of Kaliganj have once again shown that there is no room for communal politics in West Bengal. The margin of my victory signifies that individuals from all religious communities have supported me,” she stated.
Kaliganj is a minority-dominated constituency, with Muslim voters representing nearly 60 percent of the total electorate.
Political analysts suggest that the results and the margin clearly show that the Trinamool Congress has effectively consolidated Muslim votes in its favor, similar to its performance in both the 2021 Assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Following this bypoll, the Trinamool Congress now holds 227 MLAs in the 294-member Assembly, the BJP has 66, and the AISF holds one.