Kolkata: Defying all exit-poll predictions, the TMC raced ahead in 29 of West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats, surprising political pundits, while the BJP struggled to reach double digits, leading in only 12 seats, and Congress won just one seat, according to the EC website.
If TMC’s leads translate into results, the party is set for its second-best performance in the state, following its 2014 victory when it won 34 seats.
As of 6 pm, the TMC had secured 46 per cent of the votes, up from 43 per cent in 2019.
In the last Lok Sabha polls, the TMC won 22 seats, the BJP 18, and the Congress two. Despite a vigorous campaign led by top BJP leaders, the party is poised to see a decline of seven seats and a 2 per cent drop in vote share, having received 40 per cent of the votes in 2019.
The CPI(M) seems to be failing to open its account from the state just like in 2019, as it was not leading in any of the 42 seats.
The Congress, which was leading in Malda South, received a jolt as it was trailing in Baharampur, from where West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is seeking a sixth term. Chowdhury was trailing by a margin of 73,000 votes against TMC’s Yusuf Pathan.
TMC candidate and sitting MP Abhishek Banerjee is leading in Diamond Harbour over his nearest rival, BJP’s Abhijit Das, by a margin of 707,360 votes, probably the highest-ever margin in Bengal in last few decades.
In Bolpur, sitting TMC MP Asit Mal was leading by a margin of 323,192 votes over BJP’s Piya Saha.
The BJP, hoping to make a strong statement in Basirhat constituency which includes Sandeshkhali, saw its candidate Rekha Patra trailing against TMC veteran Haji Nurul Islam, by 280,480 votes.
TMC’s Hooghly candidate Rachana Banerjee was leading over her nearest BJP rival and sitting MP Locket Chatterjee by a margin of over 29,688 votes.
In Malda Dakshin, Congress candidate Isha Khan Choudhury was leading by 126306 votes over her nearest BJP rival, Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury.
In Jadavpur, TMC’s Sayani Ghosh was leading by over 104,816 votes over her nearest BJP rival, Anirban Ganguly.
In Joynagar, TMC’s sitting MP Pratima Mondal was leading by a margin of over 164,780 votes over BJP candidate Ashok Kandary.
Heavyweight BJP candidate and state president Sukanta Majumdar was trailing in Balurghat seat over his nearest rival, TMC’s Biplab Mitra, by 15,554 votes, as per the EC website.
In Malda Uttar, sitting MP and BJP candidate Khagen Murmu was leading by a margin of 11,119 votes over his nearest rival, TMC’s Prasun Banerjee.
In Cooch Behar, BJP candidate and sitting MP Nisith Pramanik was trailing by a margin of 39,527 votes against his TMC rival, Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia. Cooch Behar is the only seat in North Bengal where the BJP is trailing out of the seven seats it had won in 2019.
In Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat, BJP’s Jagannath Sarkar was leading by over 88716 votes against TMC’s Mukut Mani Adhikari.
In Krishnanagar, TMC candidate Mahua Moitra, who was expelled last year from Lok Sabha in the cash-for-query scam, was leading by a margin of 57,083 votes over her nearest BJP rival, Amrita Roy.
Heavyweight BJP candidate Shantanu Thakur was leading in West Bengal’s Bongaon seat – a Matua bastion – over his nearest rival, TMC’s Biswajit Das, by over 63,947 votes.
In Murshidabad, CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim was trailing by a margin of 133996 votes against his nearest rival and sitting MP, TMC’s Abu Taher Khan.
Heavyweight BJP candidate and state president Sukanta Majumdar was leading in the Balurghat seat over his nearest rival, TMC’s Biplab Mitra, by 9,022 votes, as per the EC website.
BJP candidate SS Ahluwalia was trailing in Asansol seat over his nearest rival, TMC’s Shatrughan Sinha, by 59,677 votes.
TMC candidate Arup Chakraborty was ahead of BJP candidate and sitting MP Subhas Sarkar in Bankura Lok Sabha constituency by 32,783 votes.
TMC candidate and party’s Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandopadhyay was leading by 49,491 votes from the Kolkata North seat over his nearest BJP rival, Tapas Roy.
In the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, TMC candidate Kirti Azad was leading by 137,564 votes over his nearest BJP rival, Dilip Ghosh.
In Kolkata South, TMC candidate Mala Roy was leading over her nearest rival, CPI(M)’s Saira Shah Halim, by a margin of 162,771 votes.
In Barrackpore, TMC’s Partha Bhowmick was leading by a margin of 60,421 votes over his nearest rival and sitting MP, Arjun Singh.
In Tamluk Lok Sabha segment, TMC’s Debanghsu Bhattacharya was trailing by a margin of 41,428 votes against his nearest rival, BJP’s Abhijit Gangopadhyay.
In Birbhum, TMC’s three-term MP Satabdi Roy was leading by a massive margin of over 161,000 votes over BJP’s Debtanu Bhattacharya.
In Ghatal, TMC candidate and two-term MP Dipak Adhikari, aka Dev, was leading by a margin of 160,968 votes over his nearest BJP rival, Hiranmoy Chattopadhyay.
In Junglemahal area, the BJP was trailing in three – Bankura, Medinipur, and Jhargram – of the five seats it had won last time.
The saffron camp, however, was leading in Purulia and Bishnupur Lok Sabha seats.
The TMC on Tuesday hailed the trends that reflected that the party was racing ahead of its rivals and said the people have voted against the anti-Bengali forces.
The counting of votes for 42 Lok Sabha constituencies began at 8 am.
PTI