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TMC ahead in Bengal bypoll counting, BJP increases votes

by IBNS 16 Sep 2014, 12:34 pm

Kolkata, Sept 16 (IBNS) As counting of votes in West Bengal continued on Tuesday, the ruling Trinamool Congress is ahead in both the Chowringhee (in Kolkata) and Basirhat South (in North 24 Parganas) seats though the BJP is fast catching up with the TMC in Basirhat with the votes of the towns now being counted after the TMC took lead in the rural segments.

In Basirhat South, BJP candidate Samik Bhattacharjee is trailing behind Trinamool candidate, footballer Dipendu Biswas, after the counting of the rural segments. But now the town's (Basirhat and Taki) counting has begun and BJP is gaining there fast.

They reduced the trailing margin from 17,000 to 14,000 after the sixth round of counting  and so the two parties can now go for a neck and neck fight.

In Chowringhee, Trinamool Congress candidate Nayana Bandopadhayay is ahead. Interestingly, Congress, a party that was not focused much by media with the rise of BJP, is second here (its candidate is Santosh Pathak) and BJP (its state spokesperson Ritesh Tiwari is the candidate) is placed third as of now. The trends in favour of TMC emerged after eight rounds of counting of the total 16 rounds.

Two seats in West Bengal went for bypolls on Sept 13 in West Bengal.

Three Lok Sabha constituencies and 33 Assembly segments all over India went to poll on Saturday last with eyes largely fixed on the two seats that went to polls in West Bengal owing to a serious challenge thrown by an aggressive BJP to ponzi-scam hit ruling Trinamool Congress in the state. .

The Mamata Banerjee-led ruling Trinamool Congress’faced a strong challenge in these seats from BJP after its image was badly hit by the arrest of two of its party leaders in the multi-crore Saradha chit-fund scam. Several others connected to TMC are being grilled by the CBI.