Facing a litmus test in Bhabanipur, a Kolkata seat from where she contested to continue as the chief minister of West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday registered a thumping victory by a record margin of 58,389 votes.

As per the official Election Commission data, after 21 rounds of counting, Mamata secured 84,709 votes against BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal who managed to scrape 24,296 votes. CPI(M)’s Srijib Biswas remained a distant third with just 4,201 votes. Banerjee bettered her 2011 performance from the bastion.

“I have won the Bhabanipur Assembly bypolls with a margin of 58,832 votes and have registered the victory in every ward of the constituency,” Banerjee said after winning the Bhabanipur bypolls, adding that people of Bhabanipur gave a befitting reply to the conspiracy that was hatched in Nandigram.

“Since the elections started in Bengal, Central government hatched conspiracies to remove us (from power). I was hurt in my feet so that I don’t contest the polls. I am grateful to the public for voting for us & to ECI for conducting polls within six months,” she added.

While inching closer to victory, Banerjee greeted her supporters outside her Kolkata residence. Meanwhile, TMC workers were seen celebrating outside the chief minister’s house.

Meanwhile, the TMC was was also leading in Murshidabad’s Samserganj and Jangipur constituencies, where votes are being counted for the assembly elections.

In Samserganj, TMC candidate Amirul Islam was leading by 3,768 votes after the fifth round of counting. He secured 19,751 votes, while his nearest rival, Zaidur Rahaman of the Congress, got 15,983. Jangipur’s TMC nominee Jakir Hossain was leading by 15,643 votes after the second round of counting. Hossain secured 25,572 votes, and his nearest rival, BJP’s Sujit Das, got 9,929.

Bypoll to Bhabanipur was necessitated following the resignation of Trinamool Congress MLA Sovandeb Chattopadhyay to facilitate Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s election to the assembly. Despite TMC winning the assembly polls in May this year, Banerjee lost in Nandigram.

Winning the bypoll in Bhabanipur was a must for Banerjee to continue as the chief minister of West Bengal. According to the constitutional provision, a person has to get elected within six months of taking oath as a chief minister or a minister. She took oath as chief minister for the third consecutive term on May 5.

After multiple instances of violence during and after the assembly polls, the Election Commission arranged for a three-tier security system, deploying 24 companies of Central forces at the counting centre. The election in Bhabanipur on September 30 witnessed a modest turnout of 53.32 per cent.