The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opened its account here in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly with its candidate Shamik Bhattacharjee winning the Basirhat Dakshin seat.

According to sources, Bhattacharjee defeated footballer and Trinamool Congress candidate Dipendu Biswas by a margin of over 1,700 votes.

This incidentally, will be the second time that the BJP has won an Assembly seat here in the State.

The Basirhat Dakshin Assembly seat was won by CPI(M)’s Narayan Mukhopadhyay in 2011. However, the by-election was caused due to his death.

On the other hand, the Trinamool Congress’ Nayana Bandopadhyay is said to have won the Chowringhee seat defeating BJP’s State Secretary and party spokesperson, Ritesh Tiwary.

The Chowringhee seat was won by Sikha Mitra of Trinamool Congress in the 2011 Assembly elections. The by-election fell due after her resignation from the party.

Trinamool fielded Nayana Bandyopadhyay, wife of the leader of the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary party Sudip Bandyopadhyay, from the segment.

In both the Assembly segments, Congress and Left Front candidates have come in either third or fourth.