TMC manages leads in 164/294 Assembly constituencies
Kolkata: Despite BJP's win in 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal, the Trinamool Congress has managed to retain a lead in 164 out of 294 Assembly constituencies in the state.
According to figures released by the Election Commission, BJP has managed lead in 121 Assembly segments while the Congress that has managed only two seats in the Lok Sabha has a lead in only nine Assembly segments. The BJP had a lead in 3 Assembly segments while the Congress had a lead in 44 Assembly seats in 2016 Assembly polls. The Left that had a lead in 26 Assembly constituencies could not secure a lead in a single Assembly seat.
The results of the ruling party has been shattering particularly in the eight LS seats with 56 Assembly constituencies in North Bengal. In Alipurduar, the saffron party has taken a lead in all the Assembly seats, in Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, BJP has taken a lead in six of the 7 Assembly seats, in Raiganj the saffron brigade has a lead in four of the seven seats. In Balurghat, the TMC scored a lead in 4 Assembly segments, but the BJP's lead in three seats surpassed the total number of votes secured by TMC candidate. The situation was same in Malda Dakshin too where BJP managed a lead in three Assembly seats out of seven but ended in the winning side.
In the Assembly constituencies of Natabari that falls under North Bengal Development minister Rabindranath Ghosh, Dabgram Fulbari that falls under state Tourism minister Goutam Deb, Mathabhanga under state Forest minister Binay Krishna Barman, BJP has taken a lead.
TMC has managed to retain all its seats in the city and its suburbs but lead by the BJP in some Assembly seats have emerged as a concern for the TMC. Mala Roy secured lead in six of the seven Assembly segments in Kolkata South but state Power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay's Rashbehari constituency went in favour of the saffron party.
Sudip Bandyopadhyay won from Kolkata North seat but lost from Minister of State Shashi Panja's Shyampukur Assembly segment and also from Jorasanko. For TMC candidate Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar who won the Barasat seat failed to lead from Bidhannagar Assembly constituency that comes under state Fire minister Sujit Bose and the Habra seat under state Food minister Jyotipriya Mallick.
Sougata Roy managed to win the Dum Dum seat but lagged behind in the Rajarhat- Gopalpur Assembly segment that comes under state Technical Education minister Purnendu Basu. Mimi Chakraborty from Jadavpur seat managed to take a lead in all the Assembly segments as did Abhishek Banerjee from Diamond Harbour seat with a whooping lead of over 87,000 votes from Metiabruz in the city's fringes.
State Agricultural Marketing minister Tapan Dasgupta, MLA from Saptagram under Hooghly LS seat, state Labour minister Moloy Ghatak of Asansol North from Asansol LS seat, State Correctional Affairs minister Ujjal Biswas from Krishnanagar South under Krishnanagar LS seat also failed to give the party candidates leads in their respective Lok Sabha seats. BJP won Hooghly and Asansol seats but lost the Krishnanagar seat to TMC's Mahua Moitra.
