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Kaliganj bomb blast: Bengal teen killed in explosion during bypoll vote counting
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee assured that the police will take strict legal action against the culprits in the Kaliganj bomb blast.
Amid counting of votes for the bypoll to Kaliganj assembly seat on Monday, a thirteen-year-old girl was killed in a bomb explosion in the village in West Bengal's Nadia district, police said.
West Bengal Police said in a post on X that the 13-year old girl succumbed to her injuries sustained from an explosion in Kaliganj PS area of Krishnanagar police district.
“We shall spare no stones unturned to nab the culprits who were behind the incident. Raids are on in full swing to arrest those responsible for this extremely unfortunate death. Our prayers and thoughts are with the family members of the deceased,” the post added.
Counting for the Kaliganj assembly bypoll was underway when the incident took place.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee assured that the police will take strict legal action against the culprits.
"I am shocked and deeply saddened at the death of a young girl in an explosion at Barochandgar. My prayers and thoughts are with the family in their hour of grief," Mamata Banerjee posted on social media platform X.
"Police shall take strong and decisive legal action against the culprits at the earliest," she added.
"The girl's body has been sent for post-mortem. We are probing into the cause of the explosion," PTI quoted the police officer.
Kaliganj bypoll results
Trinamool Congress candidate Alifa Ahmed won the Kaliganj assembly bypoll by a landslide margin of 50,049 votes over her nearest rival, BJP's Ashish Ghosh.
Alifa Ahmed surpassed the 2021 winning margin of her father Nasiruddin Ahmed, whose demise in February this year necessitated the elections to the seat in West Bengal’s Nadia district, according to data on the ECI website on Monday.
After the final round of counting, Alifa bagged 1,02,759 votes compared to Ghosh who finished the race with 52,710 votes, according to figures posted by the Commission on its website.
The Left-supported Congress candidate Kabil Uddin Shaikh came in third with 28,348 votes.
Although Alifa secured about 9,000 votes less than the 1,11,696 votes that her father had bagged in 2021, her winning margin surpassed the 46,987 margin of Nasiruddin four years ago seemingly because of a tighter division of votes between her two closest challengers.
Outside the counting centre, Alifa thanked the people for "reposing faith in Mamata Banerjee's development politics".
"I do not agree that Hindus have not voted for us. We received significant leads from some Hindu-majority areas in my constituency," PTI quoted Alifa saying in response to a claim along those lines from BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari.
"We did not target votes from any particular community. We approached all voters and the results show that their clear mandate is to not tolerate any form of communal divide in Bengal," she added.
