West Bengal Opinion poll 2024: BJP to outshine TMC in setback for Mamata

The Trinamool Congress recently announced all 42 candidates from the state.

The BJP-led NDA will win 25 of the 42 seats in West Bengal in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, News18's Mega Opinion Poll has revealed.

According to the survey, the NDA will win with a vote share of 42 percent while the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress will win 17 seats.
The state sends the highest number of members to the 543-seat Lok Sabha, after Uttar Pradesh (80) and Maharashtra (48).

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had earlier declared that seat-sharing talks with the Congress had collapsed and her party would contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls alone in the state.

The Trinamool Congress recently announced all 42 candidates from the state. Among key candidates, Mahua Moitra will fight from Krishnanagar, former cricketer Yusuf Pathan from Berhampore, Saayoni Ghosh from Jadavpur, Gopal Lamba from Darjeeling, Abhishek Banerjee from Diamond Harbour, and actor Shatrughan Sinha from Asansol. Watch here. 

Aiming to throw a tough challenge to Trinamool, the BJP announced names on 20 seats in the state.  Prominent among them are BJP state president Sukanta Mazumdar (Balurghat), Nisith Pramanik (Cooch Behar), Subhas Sarkar (Bankura), Shantanu Thakur (Bongaon), Jagannath Sarkar (Ranaghat), Khagen Murmu (Maldah North), and Locket Chatterjee (Hooghly).

Catch LIVE updates of Opinion poll 2024 here. 

The upcoming electoral battle is expected to be a direct showdown between the Trinamool and the BJP.

In the 2019, Trinamool clinched 22 seats compared to the BJP's 18, with respective vote percentages of 43.3 and 40.7. But in 2021 Mamata steered the Trinamool to a resounding victory in the state assembly elections, securing an impressive 215 seats. Despite the BJP's vigorous campaigning, it only managed to secure 77 seats. This victory, however, marked a substantial departure from the BJP's relatively modest performance in the 2016 state elections, where they garnered a mere three seats.

West Bengal stands as one of India's most influential states and a frontrunner in the eastern electoral zone. Even a marginal increase in the BJP's 2019 tally of 18 seats would bring them closer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stated target of securing 370 seats independently.

For Mamata, this election doesn't represent a make-or-break scenario, given her control over the state until 2026. However, a significant surge in her party's seat count would position her as the primary opposition leader in the Lok Sabha.