BJP leading in 16, Trinamool 25 in West Bengal

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today made a deep inroad into West Bengal by leading in 16 parliamentary seats posing a strong challenge to the state's ruling Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress which is leading in 25 seats.

Out of total 42 states in West Bengal, the Congress is leading in just one constituency while the Left is yet to take a lead in any constituency, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

The BJP is not only set to substantially increase its number of seats in Bengal from just two five years ago but also its vote share, the correspondent said.

As per initial trends, the Trinamool has so far secured 44.61 per cent votes, closely followed by the BJP, which has bagged 38.99 per cent votes.

The CPI(M) and the Congress have garnered a meagre 6.66 per cent and 5.44 per cent share of the pie respectively this time.

In the previous national poll, Mamata's party had 34 seats in West Bengal whereas the Congress and the CPI(M)-led Left Front had four seats.

Federal minister Babul Supriyo of the BJP is leading in Asansol constituency by 54,984 votes against actress-turned-politician Moonmoon Sen of the Trinamool.

Another federal minister and BJP candidate S S Ahluwalia led by 23,444 votes against Mamtaz Sanghamita of the Trinamool in Burdwan-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat.

Mamata's nephew Abhishek Banerjee is leading by 50,931 votes in Diamond Harbour constituency. He is the sitting MP from the seat.

In Darjeeling Lok Sabha seat, BJP candidate Raju Bista is leading by 70,901 votes against Amar Singh Rai of the Trinamool.

BJP West Bengal unit president Dilip Ghosh led by just 253 votes against Trinamool's Manas Ranjan Bhunia in Medinipur seat.

In Barrackpore seat, Trinamool nominee Dinesh Trivedi is trailing by 2,292 votes against Arjun Singh of the BJP.

In Kolkata North constituency, sitting Trinamool lawmaker Sudip Bandopadhyay was ahead by 22,034 votes against Rahul Sinha of the BJP.

Former President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit is trailing by 68,575 votes against Khalilur Rahman of the Trinamool in Jangipur constituency. Abhijit had won the seat by a narrow margin of 8,161 votes in the 2014 general elections.

In Ghatal, Trinamool candidate and popular actor Dipak Adhikari (Dev) led by 10,474 votes against former police officer and BJP candidate Bharati Ghosh.

Sougata Roy of the TMC is leading by 8,542 votes against Samik Bhattacharya of BJP in Dum Dum Lok Sabha seat.

In the prestigious Kolkata South constituency, Mala Roy of Trinamool is leading by 212, 149 votes against BJP's Chandra Bose, grand-nephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

In Basirhat, Trinamool candidate and actor Nusrat Jahan Ruhi is ahead by 65,577 votes against BJP candidate Sayantan Basu.

West Bengal Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee of Trinamool was trailing behind Subhas Sarkar of the BJP by 24,561 votes in Bankura and in Baharampur, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress is leading by 26,852 votes against Apurba Sarkar of the Trinamool.

BJP candidate and actress Locket Chatterjee is leading by 38,855 votes over Trinamool candidate Ratna De Nag in Hoogly parliamentary constituency, according to the trends and in Uluberia seat, Sajda Ahmed of Trinamool is leading by 32,273 votes against Joy Banerjee of the BJP.

In Jadavpur seat, Trinamool candidate and actor Mimi Chakraborty is leading by 48,202 votes against Anupam Hazra of the BJP.

The BJP candidates in Purulia, Cooch Behar, Alipurdooar and Hoogly are also in the lead against their Trinamool rivals.