West Bengal bypoll results: Election Commission bans victory celebrations, asks Mamata Banerjee govt to comply

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New Delhi: As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is all set to retain the top job, the Election Commission (EC) on Sunday (October 3) directed the state government to ensure no victory celebrations take place. The counting of votes for bypolls in Bhabanipur and Murshidabad's Samserganj and Jangipur is underway. 

The Election Commission has written to West Bengal chief secretary prohibiting celebrations and processions during or after the results of the bypolls are announced. EC has also ordered the government to take all necessary steps to ensure that post-poll violence does not occur. 

Election Commission writes to West Bengal Govt, asking it to ensure that no victory celebration/procession takes place during or after the counting of votes for by-elections; asks it to take all necessary steps to ensure that post-poll violence doesn't happen — ANI (@ANI) October 3, 2021

After the 11th round of counting, Mamata Banerjee is leading by 34,000 votes in Bhabanipur Assembly by-election. BJP has fielded Priyanka Tibrewal, a 41-year-old lawyer and vice-president of the saffron party's youth wing in West Bengal. 

Earlier, Tibrewal had written to the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court seeking preventive measures in case of post-poll violence after the bypoll results are declared. "I, Priyanka Tibrewal, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency is writing to you, requesting you to give a strict order to the Kolkata police forces to take all kinds of precautionary measures so that we do not witness any kind of violence post the by-election results on October 3," the letter by the BJP candidate read. 

Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has already congratulated Banerjee. "This victory of Mamta didi is in the tradition of Satyamev Jayate," he tweeted in Hindi.

ये जो ‘ममता दीदी जी’ की जीत है
वही तो ‘सत्यमेव जयते’ की रीत है@MamataOfficial @AITCofficial — Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) October 3, 2021

Bhabanipur has 20,64,56 total voters, out of which 1,11,243 are male and 95,209 are female. 

Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) witnessed a sweeping victory in assembly polls in May, wherein the party bagged 213 of 294 seats in the West Bengal assembly. The BJP had won 77 seats. However, Mamata Banerjee had lost to BJP`s Suvendu Adhikari in the Nandigram constituency, leading to her contesting the bypoll. 

(With agency inputs)