The picture of what awaits in West Bengal after the counting process ends on Tuesday for the 18th Lok Sabha polls is becoming clearer. With the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leading in 31 seats against the BJP’s 10 seats and the Left-Congress alliance's one, it’s fair to say that the dual leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee has successfully cast its magic on West Bengal’s electorate once again.
As it did in the 2021 assembly elections, the West Bengal government’s welfare schemes, especially those aimed at women, have fetched dividends to the TMC on expected lines. Another important factor for the ruling party in West Bengal could be Muslims voting for it and the emergence of Abhishek as the most important TMC leader after Mamata Banerjee.
However, apart from what was expected, Mamata Banerjee’s party also seems to have thrown major surprises, overturning the fate of several constituencies.
Here’s the list of some seats in West Bengal that may see unexpected results at the end of the day:
Bankura: Dr Subhas Sarkar, the Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Education and the BJP’s candidate in Bankura, is surprisingly trailing behind the TMC’s Arup Chakraborty by more than 20,000 votes. Sarkar had won in 2019 by a margin of over 1.75 lakh votes.
Hooghly: The BJP’s Locket Chatterjee, who won the Hooghly seat in 2019 by over 72,000 votes, is currently trailing behind TMC candidate Rachna Banerjee by a margin of more than 30,000 votes.
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Bardhaman-Durgapur: This constituency was won by the BJP’s S.S. Ahluwalia in 2019 by more than 1 lakh votes. However, at the time of writing this report, BJP candidate Dilip Ghosh is trailing TMC’s Kirti Azad by almost 80,000 votes.
Medinipur: In 2019, Medinipur was won by Ghosh. After switching him to Bardhaman-Durgapur, the BJP fielded Agnimitra Paul who is currently losing the seat to TMC’s June Maliah. She is leading with a margin of over 40,000 votes.
Baharampur: Congress’s incumbent Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has won Baharampur five times since 1999. But at the time of writing this report, Congress’s outgoing Leader of Lok Sabha is currently trailing behind the TMC’s Yusuf Pathan by over 20,000 votes.
Coochbehar: Incumbent BJP candidate in Cooch Behar and Union Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs, Nisith Pramanik is currently trailing behind the TMC’s Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia by over 7,000 votes.
(Note: This copy was published based on the ECI updates at around 2 pm, it may subject to change later)
