Abhishek sets new record in WB, wins by margin of over 7.1 lakh votes

KOLKATA: Trinamool general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday won Diamond Harbour seat by 7.1 lakh votes — the highest ever margin in Bengal. Banerjee polled 10,48,230 lakh votes, smashing the victory margin record held so far by CPM’s late Anil Basu, who had won by a margin of 5,92,502 from Arambagh in 2004. Banerjee’s closest rival, BJP candidate Abhijit Das Bobby, got 3.3 lakh votes while CPM’s Pratik Ur Rahaman came third with 86,953 votes.
Banerjee did not speak to the media but flashed a victory sign as he went from his Harish Chatterjee Road home to Kalighat to meet CM Mamata Banerjee.The CM said: “I congratulate Abhishek for his record victory.” A beaming CM also held Abhishek closer when both flashed the victory sign for the shutterbugs.
In 2019, Banerjee had won by a margin of over 3 lakh votes, defeating BJP candidate Nilanjan Roy.
In 2014, his margin was a modest 71,298 over CPM candidate Abul Hasnat. Banerjee had sounded confident of a comfortable victory for his party after he cast his vote last Saturday, claiming that they will perform much better than 2019 LS polls.
The trend was clear after three rounds of counting when Banerjee took a lead of 1 lakh. The margin kept leaping as the rounds progressed.
Trinamool went into a celebratory mood once the margin crossed 3 lakh at 1.30pm.