habanipur Bypoll Result LIVE Updates: Celebrations Begin at Mamata Banerjee's Residence as CM Takes Lead Over Priyanka Tibrewal

Bhabanipur By-election Result LIVE Updates: It's D-Day for Mamata Banerjee today as counting of votes in Bhabanipur seat will begin soon from where the West Bengal Chief Minister hopes to register a victory over her key rival Priyanka Tibrewal of the BJP to retain power in the state. The Election Commission began counting of votes at 8am and the results are usually clear based on trends by the afternoon. There will be 21 rounds of counting of votes in the Bhabanipur constituency. The Bhabanipur constituency, which was formed in 2011 after delimitation, has been a stronghold of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) since its inception. Mamata Banerjee's Kalighat residence falls under this constituency.

Tibrewal has written to the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court seeking preventive measures in connection with possible post-poll violence after results are declared. In the letter, Priyanka Tibrewal has sought strict orders to the Kolkata Police to take all precautionary measures to prevent any kind of violence post declaration of bye-election result. Referring to incidents of violence that took place in West Bengal following declaration of result of state assembly polls in May, Priyanka Tibrewal said, "Taking the ghastly scenario into reference, I, as a candidate for this by-election, humbly request you give a strict order to all the government enforcement department to take extreme precautionary measures so that no innocent life is lost, no sexual crime is committed, no public is left homeless, no incident of arson is recorded and we live in a peaceful environment come what may be the outcome on the 3rd October, 2021."

According to Election Commission's statistics, the TMC won the 2011 West Bengal assembly elections on 184 seats and ended the 34-year-old Left Front rule. At that time, Banerjee had not contested the polls. TMC MLA and then minister Subrata Bakshi had quit the seat to make way for Banerjee, who had taken oath as the chief minister. Then, Banerjee was seeking her maiden entry to the state assembly. She managed to save her CM chair as she won the bypolls. Similarly, this year too, Banerjee will have to win Bhabanipur seat to retain the CM post.