Ruling BJD candidate Rudra Pratap Maharathy won the Pipili by-poll on Sunday, defeating his nearest rival Ashrit Pattnaik of the BJP by over 20,000 votes, the Election Commission said. Maharathy secured 96,972 votes, while Pattnaik bagged 76,056 votes. Congress nominee Bishwokeshan Harichandan Mohapatra got 4,261 votes, the EC said.

Ten candidates were in the fray for the by-poll, which was necessitated by the death of sitting BJD MLA Pradeep Maharathy in October last year.

TMC candidates in Samserganj and Jangipur in Murshidabad district notched impressive wins with TMC's Jakir Hossain winning Jangipur by a massive margin of 92,480 votes.

Jangipur's Trinamool Congress nominee Jakir Hossain secured some 1,36,444 votes, while his nearest rival, Bharatiya Janata Party's Sujit Das, polled 43,964 votes in a one-sided electoral battle. Hossain was declared victorious with a margin of 92,480 votes. Except Jane Alam Mian of Revolutionary Socialist Party, no other candidate reached four figures.

In Samserganj, TMC candidate Amirul Islam won by a margin of 26,379 votes. He secured 96,417 votes, while his nearest rival, Zaidur Rahaman of the Congress, got 70,038. Murshidabad was earlier seen as a Congress stronghold. TMC's victories in all assembly constituencies of the district places the Congress in a difficult position in the state of West Bengal.

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