West Bengal chief minister Mamata was trailing by 8,201 votes on the key Nandigram seat, according to latest figures available on the Election Commission’s website.
TMC’s supremo’s former aide who is the BJP challenger Suvendu Adhikari is leading on the seat, which he won in the 2016 Assembly elections.
Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has crossed the halfway mark in West Bengal, where the BJP seems to have made gains since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Trinamool Congress is leading in 158 seats while the BJP is ahead in 124 seats, early trends show.
However, the Chief Minister herself is trailing in Nandigram by over 7,000 votes, according to early trends being reported by TV channels. Mamata Banerjee is contesting against the BJP’s Suvendhu Adhikari, her ex-aide, whose December defection triggered a flood of exits from the Trinamool Congress. She is reportedly trailing there.
Counting of votes for the West Bengal Assembly elections began at 8 am on Sunday amid strict health protocols, as it is taking place amid a raging second wave of COVID-19.
BJP heavyweight Swapan Dasgupta was trailing in West Bengal’s Tarakeswar assembly constituency by a margin of 6,107 votes, according to figures on the Election Commission. Trinamool Congress’s Ramendu Sinharay is leading on the seat.
Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and PWD minister Aroop Biswas is leading from Tollygunge assembly constituency, which has witnessed a high-stake battle this time, while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Minister Supriyo is trailing.
TMC leading in Maldaha, where the Congress won in 2016 Cong with a margin of 33,309 votes. Veteran TMC leader and minister Firhad Hakim is leading ahead of Congress’s Md Mukhtar from Kolkata Port. The ruling party has also taken lead in Sitalkuchi where central forces had shot four villagers dead.
People across the country their eyes fixed on the West Bengal election results as the BJP looks to break into the Opposition’s last bastion in the East.
The TMC was fighting some degree of anti-incumbency after being in power for 10 years and was attempting to ward off a challenge by the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The Left Front, which once governed Bengal for decades, allied with the Congress. Both have been hoping to turn around their fortunes after shrinking electorally in the state for over a decade.