Former cricketer-turned-Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Manoj Tiwary has won against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Rathindranath Chakraborty in the Shibpur Assembly constituency of West Bengal.
After eight phases of polling amid the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, counting of votes was scheduled in West Bengal on May 2.
The state-wide trends showed the TMC winning or leading in 210 out of the 292 constituencies, whereas, the BJP was ahead in 79 seats. The Left Front and Congress candidates were trailing in all the constituencies.
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The polling was held in eight rounds in West Bengal between March 27 and April 29, in Assam in three stages on March 27, April 1 and 6. The state has the maximum number of 1,113 counting halls at 1,113, the Election Commission said.
Further, a three-tier security arrangement is in place in West Bengal's counting centres and 256 companies of central forces deployed across 23 districts of the state that voted in a gruelling election marred by violence and vicious personal attacks.
The result will decide whether Mamata Banerjee, who has been in power for 10 years and is arguably fighting the toughest poll of her political career, has been able to thwart the challenge by the battle-hardened election army of the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
The BJP, which had just three seats in the 294-member Assembly after the polls and went to win 18 out of 42 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, had pulled out all the stops in the state in a determined bid to oust Banerjee, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Modi, and add another state to its tally of 17.
The Left-Congress alliance is the third main contestant in the state.
Counting of votes for the assembly polls is also underway in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (UT).
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(With PTI inputs)
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