West Bengal election results: Who is Ratna Debnath, RG Kar victim's mother leading in TMC stronghold?

The counting of votes is underway, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is firmly leading in over 200 of 294 seats in West Bengal. Among the crucial constituencies is Panihati, from where the mother of the RG Kar victim and the BJP candidate, Ratna Debnath, is leading by over 20,000 votes, according to the latest available data on the Election Commission website.

Debnath's nearest rival is Tirthankar Ghosh from All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Panihati. Communist Party of India (Marxist) Kalatan Dasgupta is in the third place.

Panihati sits within the Dum Dum Lok Sabha seat. The constituency has been a TMC bastion since 2009. However, the brutal rape and murder of Debnath’s daughter inside a government hospital in 2024 sparked a massive anger against TMC across the nation, drawing the Supreme Court into the matter.

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Debnath, who reportedly has not combed her hair since the incident as a form of mourning and protest, asserted that she will continue this until justice is served for her daughter.

We take a look.

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Who is Ratna Debnath?

Debnath is a BJP candidate for the Panihati Assembly constituency in the North 24 Parganas district.

According to her election affidavit, she is a 54-year-old woman. Her husband's name is Sekhar Ranjan Debnath. Debnath's total assets are worth Rs 74 lakh.

According to several media reports, Joy Saha, a party member, said the BJP reached out to Debnath around six months ago. They persuaded her to join politics. Debnath said that her decision to contest the polls was to carry forward her fight for justice and to challenge what she sees as failures in the system.

The 54-year-old is a rank outsider to electoral politics. She has kept her campaign tightly centred on women’s safety and sought accountability for her daughter’s death.

Debnath said, as quoted by NDTV, "My main enemy is Mamata Banerjee because she's the health minister, and my daughter worked for the health department. Why didn't Mamata Banerjee save my daughter?”

“People have lost hope of finding justice in this state ... I want to give these victims, their families, the people of this state, a voice,” she added.

She asserted that her daughter’s case is not an isolated one, adding that thousands of others in West Bengal have faced similar suffering, often at the hands of the ruling party.

Her candidacy received strong backing from the BJP right from the beginning.

Smriti Irani, former Union minister for women and child development and ex-MP from Amethi, accompanied Debnath during the filing of her nomination. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also visited Panihati on April 24 to campaign alongside her.

West Bengal finally turns saffron

The Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is poised to make history in Bengal. After years, the BJP has achieved the unthinkable. Trends show that the saffron party has crossed the 200 mark, ousting the Mamata Banerjee-led government, which has retained power in the state for the past 15 years.

If the number holds, the BJP will break the TMC's 15-year rule in the state. The BJP used issues such as unemployment, corruption allegations, and governance to turn the tide.

The party made women’s safety a key issue, raising the rape and murder at RG Kar Medical College, fielding the victim’s mother from the Panihati seat, who is currently leading and expected to win the major.

With inputs from agencies