Kumaraswamy praises Mamata for ''historic'' victory in Bhabanipur by-poll

Bengaluru: Senior JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy on Sunday congratulated West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on winning the by-poll to Bhabanipur Assembly constituency with a huge margin.

While wishing Banerjee in a series of tweets, he also hit out at BJP for fielding a candidate against Banerjee.

“Hearty congratulations to West Bengal Chief Minister @MamataOfficial for registering a glorious and historic victory in the by-election from Bhavanipur Assembly seat,” Kumaraswamy tweeted.

He said the BJP displayed a stubborn attitude by fielding a candidate against her though the people’s mandate was in her favour.

The former CM said BJP leader Rajiv Banerjee himself had said that she will win by a huge margin and his prediction came true.

“The BJP should have helped in ensuring the unopposed election of Mamata Banerjee by shunning political narrow-mindedness. It’s my personal view that such a gesture would have helped the BJP to retain its dignity,” Kumaraswamy said.

Five months after spearheading TMC to a landslide win in the assembly election, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee scored a personal point with a massive victory on Sunday in the Bhabanipur by-poll with a record margin of 58,835 votes.

Banerjee secured 85,263 votes while her nearest rival and BJP”s Priyanka Tibrewal garnered 26,428 votes. CPI(M)’s Srijib Biswas polled 4,226 votes.