In what could be a setback for incumbent Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is trailing against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in initial trends in West Bengal where counting of votes is underway. The party, which received a two-third majority in the previous elections in 2021, is leading on 122 seats by the time this copy was filed.
On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has crossed the halfway mark and is leading on 168 seats, initial trends have suggested. In West Bengal, the Legislative Assembly has a strength of 294 members and a party needs 148 seats to form the government.
The trends fall in line with the exit poll projections as most of the post-poll surveys had predicted a win for the saffron party in West Bengal, where Banerjee has been in power after she ended the Left rule in the state in 2011.
Banerjee, a three-time chief minister, is also trailing from her Bhabanipur bastion against BJP heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari. If Banerjee goes on to lose her seat, then this would be the second straight time when the TMC supremo would be defeated by Adhikari.
The two had also locked horns during the 2021 elections in the Nandigram assembly constituency. Back then, Adhikari had defeated Banerjee by a narrow margin, which forced the TMC supremo to contest a byelection from Bhabanipur to get elected to the West Bengal Assembly.
The West Bengal elections
In West Bengal, the polling was conducted in two phases on April 23 and 29. In the first phase, polling was held on 152 seats. One-hundred forty-two constituencies voted in the second phase on April 29. In total, the state witnessed a voter turnout of 92.47 per cent, which was the highest since Independence, according to the data provided by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
It must be noted that repolling was conducted on 11 booths of Magrahat Paschim and four in Diamond Harbour assembly segments on May 2. The poll body cited "severe electoral offences and subversion of democratic process during polling in a large number of polling stations" behind the decision to conduct repolling. Similarly, fresh elections will now take place in the Falta assembly constituency on May 21, where locals alleged that they were threatened by the TMC workers and supporters.
The counting of votes in Falta will take place on May 24.
This year's assembly elections witnessed a high-decibel contest, with senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, targeting the TMC on issues such as corruption, law and order, infiltration, women's safety and unemployment. The TMC, led by Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee -- the party's national general secretary, countered with a campaign focused on alleged harassment of people during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and Bengali pride.
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