The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday set off a saffron storm in West Bengal leading in 19 parliamentary seats, a performance that posed a serious challenge to the state’s ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress which led in 25 seats. Out of the total of 42 states in West Bengal, the Congress is leading in just one constituency while the Left, which had ruled the state for 34 years between1977 and 2011, is yet to to take a lead in any constituency.
As per latest trends, the Trinamool has so far secured 44.61 per cent votes, closely followed by the BJP, which has bagged 38.99 per cent votes. The CPI(M) and the Congress have garnered a meagre 6.66 per cent and 5.44 per cent share of the pie respectively. In the previous national poll, Mamata’s party had won 34 seats in West Bengal whereas the BJP had only two. The Congress and the CPI(M)-led Left Front have four and two seats respectively.
Federal minister Babul Supriyo of the BJP is leading in Asansol constituency by 54,984 votes against actress-turned-politician Moonmoon Sen of the Trinamool. Another federal minister and BJP candidate S S Ahluwalia led by 23,444 votes against Mamtaz Sanghamita of the Trinamool in Burdwan-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat.
Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee is leading by 50931 votes in Diamond Harbour constituency. He is the sitting MP from the seat. In Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, BJP candidate Raju Bista is leading by 70,901 votes against Amar Singh Rai of the Trinamool. BJP West Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh led by just 253 votes against Trinamool’s Manas Ranjan Bhunia in Medinipur seat. In Barrackpore seat, Trinamool nominee Dinesh Trivedi is trailing by 2,292 votes against Arjun Singh of the BJP.
In Kolkata North constituency, sitting Trinamool lawmaker Sudip Bandopadhyay was ahead by 22,034 votes against Rahul Sinha of the BJP. Former President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit is trailing by 68,575 votes against Khalilur Rahman of the Trinamool in Jangipur constituency. Abhijit had won the seat by a narrow margin of 8,161 votes in the 2014 general elections.
In Ghatal, Trinamool candidate and popular actor Dipak Adhikari (Dev) led by 10,474 votes against former police officer and BJP candidate Bharati Ghosh. Sougata Roy of the TMC is leading by 8542 votes against Samik Bhattacharya of BJP in Dum Dum Lok Sabha seat. In the prestigious Kolkata South constituency, Mala Roy of Trinamool is leading by 212, 149 votes against BJP's Chandra Bose, grand-nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
In Basirhat, Trinamool candidate and actor Nusrat Jahan Ruhi is ahead by 65,577 votes against BJP candidate Sayantan Basu. West Bengal Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee of Trinamool was trailing behind Subhas Sarkar of the BJP by 24,561 votes in Bankura and in Baharampur, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress is leading by 26,852 votes against Apurba Sarkar of the Trinamool.
BJP candidate and actress Locket Chatterjee is leading by 38,855 votes over Trinamool candidate Ratna De Nag in Hoogly parliamentary constituency, according to the trends and in Uluberia seat, Sajda Ahmed of Trinamool is leading by 32,273 votes against Joy Banerjee of the BJP. In Jadavpur seat, Trinamool candidate and actor Mimi Chakraborty is leading by 48,202 votes against Anupam Hazra of the BJP.
The BJP candidates in Purulia, Cooch Behar, Alipurdooar and Hoogly are also in the lead against their Trinamool rivals. Reacting to electoral result trends, Mamata congratulated the winners and said “not all losers are losers.” She said her party would review the poll results later and come out with a detailed reaction.
The night before the counting of votes in Indian parliamentary polls on Thursday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee played a Rabindra sangeet on the key board apparently as a stress-buster. Mamata took to the keyboard and played a song by Rabindranath Tagore as seen in a video posted on Facebook from her official handle.
Known to be a keen instrument player Mamata is seen the video shared from her official account shows her playing Tagore song “Prano bhoriye, trisha hariye more aaro aaro aaro dao praan…” Posting the video, Mamata said “As counting day approaches, I pray for my motherland. This song is dedicated to Maa Mati Manush.”