Kolkata (PTI): The TMC on Tuesday roller-coasted to victory in Dinhata assembly seat which its Minister of State for Home Nishith Paramanik had won earlier this year, by a record margin of 1,64,089 votes in assembly by-elections held last Saturday. The ruling party also retained the Khardah assembly segment by winning the seat by an impressive margin of 93,832 votes.
In the Dinhata assembly seat in Coochbehar, TMC's Udayan Guha secured votes 1,14,086 votes, whereas BJP's Palash Rana, the nearest rival, garnered mere 20,254 votes.
The bypoll for the Dinhata assembly segment was necessitated after central minister Nisith Pramanik who had won the seat by a slender margin of just 57 votes resigned to retain his Coochbehar Lok Sabha seat. In the Khardah assembly segment, state minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay defeated his nearest rival the BJP's Joy Saha by a margin of 93,832 votes.
Chattopadhyay secured 1,14,086 votes, whereas Saha managed to bag 20,254 votes.
The bypoll to this assembly segment was necessitated following the death of the sitting TMC MLA.
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Dubai, Feb 20 (PTI): A cramping Towhid Hridoy made a courageous maiden ODI hundred but led by five-wicket man Mohammed Shami India managed to keep Bangladesh to an underwhelming 228 in their Champions Trophy opener here on Thursday.
Hridoy (100, 118b, 6x4, 2x6) and an equally gutsy Jaker Ali (68, 114b, 4x4) added 154 for an doughty sixth-wicket stand to drag Bangladesh back from the depth of 35 for five after they elected to bat.
Shami also eased a lot of worries over the absence of injured pace ace Jasprit Bumrah with a five for 53 effort, and during the spell he also became the fastest Indian bowler to reach 200 ODI wickets.
Hridoy's innings was an example of how to construct an innings yet maintain a healthy run-rate as he reached the milestone in just 114 balls.
He and Ali also showed excellent composure under pressure.
However, both the Bangladesh batters benefited from the largesse of Indian fielders, as Ali was dropped on zero off the first ball he faced off left-arm spinner Axar Patel (2/43).
It also robbed Axar of a hat-trick after he dismissed Mushfiqur Rahim and Tanzid Hasan off successive deliveries.
Hridoy had the fortune when he was grassed by Hardik Pandya at mid-off off Kuldeep Yadav when he was on 23.
KL Rahul, who was sharp behind the stumps, floored a stumping chance to give the second reprieve for Hridoy. Indian fielders were also sloppy in the middle passage, allowing the Bangladesh batters to steadily collect singles and twos to ease some pressure.
But those moments of slip-ups should not take anything away from the way Indian bowlers, especially Shami, used the new ball on a rather slow but smooth pitch.
Shami, who had an average outing against England in T20I and ODI series recently at home, did not disappoint on the big stage and took the wicket of opener Soumya Sarkar in the first over itself.
He did not take much time to grab his second wicket when he ousted Mehdy Hasan Miraz — caught brilliantly by Shubman Gill in the slips.
The Bengal pacer later returned to break the determined stand between Hridoy and Ali, dismissing the latter.
He later took two more wickets, and now the 34-year-old is India’s highest wicket taker in ICC tournaments, going past former pacer Zaheer Khan (59).
Harshit Rana (3/31), who was preferred over left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, gave good backing to his senior partner.