Mamata Banerjee trailing, big lead for other Trinamool heavyweights

Kolkata: Though West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is still trailing behind BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram, the trends after the fourth round of counting show that the other Trinamool Congress heavyweights are leading in their respective Assembly constituencies.

After the fourth round of counting, Banerjee is trailing behind her one-time aide Adhikari in Nandigram in East Midnapore district by a margin of 3,710 votes.

As per the latest Election Commission data, Adhikari, who had jumped ship from the Trinamool to the BJP in December last year, has got 34,430 votes against Banerjee’s 30,655.

Banerjee, who had won the last two elections from the Bhowanipur Assembly constituency in Kolkata, left her seat this time and decided to contest from Nandigram. Adhikari, who was an important minister in Banerjee’s cabinet before defecting to the BJP, had won from Nandigram in the 2016 elections on a Trinamool ticket.

Though Banerjee is trailing, the Trinamool Congress is showing signs of cruising to a big victory with most of its major candidates leading in their respective seats.

PWD Minister Arup Biswas is leading from the Tollygunge Assembly constituency over his BJP rival Babul Supriyo by a margin of nearly 8,000 votes.

Education Minister Partha Chatterjee is also leading from the Behala West Constituency by a margin of nearly 5,000 votes. Similarly, Javed Ahmed Khan has taken a lead of more than 47,000 votes over his Left Front rival Shatarup Ghosh.

Apart from that, Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee is leading from the Ballygunge constituency, IT Minister Bratya Basu is leading from Dum Dum in North 24 Parganas, Urban

Development Minister and former Mayor Firhad Hakim is leading from Kolkata Port constituency, Food Minister Jyotipriaya Mullick is leading from Habra, while Minister of State for Women and Child Health Shashi Panja in leading from the Jorasanko constituency in North Kolkata.

Alternatively, Tourism Minister Goutam Deb is trailing from the Dabgram-Phulbari constituency in Jalpaiguri district, while Labour Minister Moloy Ghatak is trailing from the Asanasol South constituency in East Burdwan district. Minister of State for Fire Sujit Basu is also trailing from the Bidhananagar constituency.

BJP’s Nisith Pramanik is leading against Trinamool heavyweight Udyayan Guha from the Dinhata Assembly constituency in Cooch Behar district.

Heavyweight BJP candidates like Swapan Dasgupta, Locket Chatterjee, Biashali Dalmia, Rahul Sinha, Babul Supriyo and Samik Bhattacharya are all trailing in their respective constituencies.