Counting of votes for 42 Lok Sabha constituencies began at 8 am.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: The TMC and the BJP were on Tuesday locked in a neck-and-neck contest in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal as it was leading in 19 seats, whereas the BJP was leading in 17 seats after the initial round of counting of postal ballots, Election Commission officials said.
TMC candidate and sitting MP Abhishek Banerjee is leading in Diamond Harbour constituency over his nearest rival BJP's Abhijit Das, officials said.
TMC's candidate from Hooghly Rachana Banerjee was leading after counting of postal ballots over her nearest rival and sitting MP Locket Chatterjee.
TMC candidate and three-time MP Satabdi Roy was leading from Birbhum seat over her nearest rival of BJP's Piya Saha.
Heavyweight TMC candidate Saugata Roy was trailing in Dum Dum parliamentary seat on the northern outskirts of Kolkata, while his nearest rival, BJP's Shilbhadra Dutta, was leading, say TV reports, stating initial trends.
However, TV channels reported that BJP was leading in 18 seats, whereas the TMC was ahead in 17 seats.
In Malda Dakshin, Congress candidate Isha Khan Choudhury was leading by 5,812 votes over his nearest BJP rival Srirupa Mitra Choudhury.
In Jadavpur, TMC's Sayani Ghosh was leading by 4409 votes over her nearest BJP rival Anirban Ganguly.
Bengali news channel ABP Ananda reported that TMC was leading in 20 seats, while the BJP was ahead in 21 seats and the Congress, and the CPI (M) were ahead in one seat each.
Another Bengali news channel TV 9 Bangla reported that TMC was leading in seats, whereas the BJP was ahead in 22 seats, whereas the Congress in one.
Counting of votes for 42 Lok Sabha constituencies began at 8 am.
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