ECI West Bengal results : Mamata’s TMC hopes for last-minute twist; BJP leads in 200+ seats

The Bharatiya Janata Party took lead in early trends in West Bengal and has maintained it till now. The early trends started to come in shortly after counting of votes began at 8 am today. The West Bengal assembly polls were held in two phases on April 23 and April 29 and the results for them will be out today, following a heated campaigning battle between the incumbent Trinamool Congress (TMC) – led by chief minister Mamata Banerjee – and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

While the TMC is aiming for a historic fourth term in the state, the BJP is looking to create history by winning in Bengal for the first time. Apart from the main rivals, BJP and TMC, other political parties are also in fray in West Bengal assembly polls, including Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The counting is taking place for 293 seats. The ECI ordered repolling in Falta constituency on May 21.

With no surprises, polling in Bengal saw several incidents of violence, particularly between workers of both the rival parties and also reports of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) tampering. This led to repolling across 15 booths in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district in Diamond Harbour and Magrahat Paschim on May 2, just two days ahead of counting.

The decision of repolling was taken by the Election Commission of India following reports of EVM tampering during the second phase of polling held on Thursday, April 29.

Bengal has a total of 294 constituencies, out of which, 152 seats went to polls in the first phase on April 23 and the rest 142 seats voted in the second phase on April 29.