At a time turncoats lost in most parts of Bengal, north Bengal saw a sharp contrast with many candidates who defected to the BJP proving to be giant-slayers.
Veteran CPM leader Asok Bhattacharya, a six-time MLA and a former state minister from Siliguri, faced defeat from Shankar Ghosh, his former protégé who joined the BJP a few weeks before the polls.
Trinamul leaders who were ministers in Mamata Banerjee’s outgoing cabinet, Gautam Deb and Rabindranath Ghosh, also lost from Dabgram-Fulbari and Natabari, respectively. Deb lost to Shikha Chatterjee, a BJP leader who deserted Trinamul in 2018. Ghosh conceded defeat to his former party colleague Mihir Goswami who joined the BJP last year. Krishna Kalyani, the BJP candidate of Raiganj who left Trinamul a few weeks back, defeated Mohit Sengupta, the most prominent Congress leader of North Dinajpur.