Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has clinched the West Bengal by-elections winning the constituencies of Uluberia and Noapara.
The party won Noapara within less than three hours of vote counting and secured the Uluberia seat by a margin of 2,89,557 votes. Earlier, Uluberia Lok Sabha constituency recorded 76.7 per cent polling whereas Noapara recorded 75.3 per cent.
The by-elections in West Bengal are being seen as a semi-final for the Trinamool Congress and opposition parties ahead of the 2018 panchayat polls and the TMC seems to have won with flying colours.
The bypolls were necessitated by the death of Sultan Ahmed, the sitting TMC MP from Uluberia, and of Madhusudan Ghose, Congress MLA from the Noapara Assembly seat.