Initial trend of counting in West Bengal points towards a best-ever performance for the Trinamool Congress, which is leading in 33 of the 42 seats in the State. The trend has come as a major setback for the Left parties who are leading in just sone seat in the State’s Murshidabad district.
The BJP has emerged as a major force, with its candidates leading in Darjeeling, Alipurduar and Asansol. The counting of votes so far shows that the BJP’s vote share has increased three times from 6 per cent in the last elections to 17.5 per cent in the votes counted so far.
The Congress, whose candidates are leading in five seats, has maintained its stronghold in the districts of Malda and Murshidabad.
In the entire south Bengal, the Trinamool Congress is leading in almost all constituencies. The party has registered about 39.8 per cent of the votes polled and counted so far. The vote share of the Left parties has reduced significantly, registering about 29.4 per cent votes.
Moon Moon Sen leading
Actress Moon Moon Sen is leading over seven time CPI(M) MP Basudeb Acharya by over 15,000 votes. The other star candidates like Dev and Sandya Roy of the Trinamool Congress are also leading.
BJP’s Babul Supriyo is comfortably ahead of the Trinamool Congress candidate Dola Sen in Asansol by 24,000 votes.
In Darjeeling, BJP’s S. S. Ahluwalia is leading over Trinamool’s Bhaichung Bhutia by 21,000 votes.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s grand nephew and Harvard University historian Sugata Bose is all set to win the Jadavpur Lok Sabha seat and now has a lead of 50,000 votes.
President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit Mukherjee and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee are both facing a strong challenge in their respective seats and are leading by a few thousand votes over their nearest political rivals.
In Kolkata Dakshin, AITC’s Subrata Bakshi is leading over BJP’s Tathagatha Roy while in Kolkata Uttar too, the battle is between Trinamool Congress and BJP with AITC’s Sudip Bandyopadhya leading over Rahul Sinha of BJP.