Mala Roy, Sudip Bandyopadhyay maintain Trinamool's lead in city

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress retained its seats in the two Kolkata constituencies with both Mala Roy and Sudip Bandyopadhyay leading by a comfortable margin from the Kolkata South and Kolkata North parliamentary constituencies.

Roy had a lead of over 1.5 lakh votes over BJP's Chandra Kumar Bose. In terms of voting percentage, Roy has got over 47 percent votes, significantly higher than the 36.95 percent votes won by TMC in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

On the other hand, BJP's vote percentage of over 34 percent is also a marked rise from 25.28 percent last year. In contrast, the vote percentage of CPI(M)'s Nandini Mukherjee stood at around 11 percent, a sharp drop from the 23.83 percent votes that she had amassed during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

"The people of South Kolkata have always blessed Trinamool Congress and this year it has been no exception. People have voted for us because they love TMC and our party supremo Mamata Banerjee," Roy said, refusing to elaborate with the complete results still pending.

Meanwhile, Sudip Bandyopadhyay was last seen leading by a margin of over 1 lakh votes over BJP's Rahul Sinha. In terms of voting percentage, TMC recorded around 49 percent, up from 35.94 percent in the 2014 polls, whereas the saffron party's vote percentage hovered around 37 percent, up from 25.88 percent last year. CPI(M)'s vote percentage, which was over 20 in 2014, dropped to a paltry 7.5 percent.

Roy, the chairperson of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, was fielded from the Kolkata South seat replacing Subrata Bakshi, who had swept the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 with a margin of 1,36,339 votes over BJP's Tathagata Roy.

Bakshi's vote percentage was 36.95, while that of Roy was 25.28. CPI(M)'s Nandini Mukherjee, who came third, could manage 23.83 percent votes. Interestingly, it may be recalled that Roy had contested on a Congress ticket in 2014 and had bagged over 1 lakh votes.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the voters of Kolkata South had bestowed their faith upon TMC as well, with present TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee winning from the seat by over 2 lakh votes. Banerjee bagged 57.19 percent votes, while CPI(M)'s Rabin Deb, who came second, registered 35.39 percent votes.

South Kolkata has come to be known as a stronghold of TMC for over a decade, with party supremo Mamata Banerjee herself being a resident of Harish Chatterjee Street in Kalighat.

It may be mentioned that in the Kolkata North seat, Bandyopadhyay had won in both 2009 and 2014. He defeated his nearest rival Sinha by a margin of 96,266 votes in 2014, while CPI(M)'s Mohammed Salim had lost by 1,09,278 votes in 2009.