Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari defeated incumbent West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from Nandigram constituency by a margin of nearly 2,000 votes.
Adhikari, who was once a close aide of Banerjee, joined the BJP just a few months ahead of the state assembly elections. As per the Election Commission of India (ECI), Adhikari won with a margin of 1,956 votes in Nandigram.The BJP leader had earlier thanked the people of Nandigram for choosing him as their representative and the MLA from the constituency.
"My sincere thanks to the great people of Nandigram for their love, trust, blessings, and support, and for choosing me as their representative and the MLA from Nandigram. It is my never-ending commitment to be of service to them and working for their welfare. I am truly grateful!" tweeted Adhikari.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee claimed that she has information that some manipulations were done after the declaration of results for the Nandigram seat. Earlier on Sunday, there were reports of Mamata Banerjee winning from the Nandigram constituency.
Banerjee said, "I received an SMS from someone wherein Returning Officer of Nandigram has written to someone if he allows recounting then his life would be under threat. For four hours server was down, Governor also congratulated me. Suddenly everything changed."
She further appealed to everyone to maintain peace and not indulge in any violence. We know BJP and Central Forces have tortured us a lot but we have to maintain peace. At present, we have fight COVID19, said Banerjee.
Making the game of thrones in Bengal more interesting, Mamata chose Nandigram over her home turf Bhabanipur seat this time to test her fate in the 2021 elections. It was the agitation in Nandigram and Singur against the Left government's land acquisition policies that made Mamata Banerjee the Chief Minister of West Bengal.
Notably, Adhikari had pledged that he would quit politics if he did not defeat Mamata by 50,000 votes in Nandigram.