Kolkata, May 4: The BJP was leading in 24 Assembly seats while its rival TMC was ahead in five seats in early trends shown on the Election Commission website on Monday as counting of votes progressed across West Bengal.
The Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), an ally of the TMC in the Darjeeling hills, was leading in two constituencies — Kalimpong and Darjeeling.
Initial trends reported by regional TV networks claimed BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari was leading in the Nandigram assembly constituency by a margin of 3,100 votes after the first round of counting.
Adhikari is taking on TMC’s Pabitra Kar as his primary opponent.
The Election Commission is yet to put out figures for the Nandigram seat on its website.
“Out of the 14 booths where votes were counted in Nandigram in the first round, there were five Muslim-dominated booths. Even in those booths, the TMC is struggling,” Adhikari told reporters in Kolkata.
He asserted that the BJP will form a government in West Bengal.
The leader of the opposition in the outgoing assembly said he was leading in 135 out of the 293 seats where counting of votes is being held.
Among the key seats, BJP candidate Lakshmi Kanta Sau was leading in Jhargram with 5,156 votes, ahead of TMC’s Mongal Saren, who secured 4,180 votes, trailing by 976 votes.
In Kolkata, BJP’s Purnima Chakraborty was leading by 283 votes over TMC candidate and minister Shashi Panja. In Monteswar, BJP’s Saikat Panja was ahead of the TMC’s Siddiqullah Chowdhury by a margin of 3,486 votes in early rounds.
From Asansol Dakshin, BJP leader Agnimitra Paul was leading by 6,271 votes over her TMC rival.
The saffron party was also leading in several other constituencies, including Dinhata, Gosaba, Baghmundi, Bankura, Durgapur Purba, Binpur, Nayagram, Rajganj and Bhagwangola, indicating early gains across regions.
In contrast, Deganga’s TMC candidate Anisur Rahaman Bidesh was leading by 2,184 votes over his BJP rival.
The ruling party was also ahead in Kasba and Entally constituencies in Kolkata and Singur in Hooghly.
In Kalimpong, BGPM candidate Ruden Sada Lepcha was leading by 457 votes over the BJP’s Bharat Kumar Chetri. The party was also ahead in Darjeeling, underlining its influence in the hills.
The counting of votes for the state’s 293 Assembly constituencies began at 8 am, with postal ballots taken up first in keeping with Election Commission norms, followed by the counting of EVM votes.
The high-stakes election is being seen as a crucial test for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her party’s bid for a fourth consecutive term, amid a stiff challenge mounted by the BJP.
Officials said trends are likely to change as more rounds of counting are completed, with clearer patterns expected to emerge later in the day.

KOLKATA, May 4: Counting of votes for the high-stakes assembly elections in West Bengal began at 8 am on Monday, with the verdict set to decide whether the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC returns to power for a fourth consecutive term or the BJP scripts history by forming its first government in the state.
The counting is being held for 293 of 294 assembly segments in 77 centres across 23 districts of the state under a multi-layered security cordon, deciding the fate of 2,926 candidates.
The elections were held under the shadow of the SIR exercise, in which the names of around 91 lakh people were removed from the electoral rolls, which shrank to around 6.82 crore.
The polling was held in two phases — on April 23 for 152 seats and on April 29 for 142 seats, recording a voter turnout of 92.47 per cent — the highest since Independence, according to the Election Commission.
While repolling was held in 11 booths of Magrahat Paschim and four in Diamond Harbour assembly segment on May 2, the EC countermanded polls in the adjacent Falta constituency, citing “severe electoral offences and subversion of democratic process during polling in a large number of polling stations”.
The fresh poll in that seat will take place on May 21, and counting on May 24.
The postal ballots, through which those engaged in poll duty vote, are being counted first, followed by the EVMs. Several rounds of counting will be held in every seat, with early trends expected shortly.
The elections have been keenly contested, with the ruling TMC aiming to retain power for a fourth consecutive term, while the BJP is seeking a historic breakthrough in the state. The CPI(M)-led Left Front and the Congress are looking to regain lost ground after their rout in the 2021 elections.
More than 2.5 lakh personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), along with state police, have been deployed, with the TMC and BJP engaging in a showdown outside several strongrooms, where EVMs were stored, in the run-up to the counting.
In state capital Kolkata, counting for 11 assembly constituencies is being conducted across five locations — Ballygunge Govt High School, Baba Saheb Ambedkar Education University, Sakhawat Memorial Govt Girls’ High School, Netaji Indoor Stadium and St Thomas Boys’ School.
TMC contested 291 seats, while its ally Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha (BGPM), led by Anit Thapa, fielded candidates in three seats in the Darjeeling Hills. The BJP fielded candidates in all 294 seats, while the Congress contested 292 seats.
The four-party Left Front contested 246 seats, and lent support to CPIM(L) Liberation on 10 assembly segments, ISF and SDPI on 29 seats, and an Independent and other Left-wing outfits on the remaining seats.
The campaign witnessed a high-decibel contest, with senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, targeting the TMC on issues such as corruption, law and order, infiltration, women’s safety and unemployment.
The TMC, led by Chief Minister Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee — the party’s national general secretary, countered with a campaign focused on alleged harassment of people during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and Bengali pride.
In the 2021 elections, the TMC had won 215 seats, while the BJP bagged 77, and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and ISF one seat each.
Among the prominent TMC candidates are CM Banerjee, who is being challenged by Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari in Bhabanipur, state ministers Sujit Bose in Bidhannagar, Firhad Hakim in Kolkata Port, Jyoti Priya Mallick in Habra, Bratya Basu in Dum Dum, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay in Ballygunge, Aroop Biswas in Tollygunge, Manas Bhuniya in Sabang, Moloy Ghatak in Asansol Uttar, Udayan Guha in Dinhata, Shashi Panja in Shyampukur and Chandrima Bhattacharya in Dum Dum Uttar.
The BJP’s heavyweight candidates include ex-MP Nisith Pramanik in Mathabhanga, Sankar Ghosh in Siliguri, Gouri Shankar Ghosh in Murshidabad, Subrata Thakur in Gaighata, ex-MP Dilip Ghosh in Kharagpur Sadar, Koustav Bagchi in Barrackpur, Ratna Debnath in Panihati, Sajal Ghosh in Baranagar, Rekha Patra in Hingalganj, Roopa Ganguly in Sonarpur Dakshin, Arjun Singh in Noapara, Swapan Dasgupta in Rashbehari and Rudranil Ghosh in Shibpur.
Also in the fray are CPI(M)’s Minakshi Mukherjee in Uttarpara, Dipsita Dhar in Dum Dum Uttar, Kalatan Dasgupta in Panihati, ex-MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya in Jadavpur, ISF MLA Nawsad Siddiqui in Bhangar, ex-MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and state Congress president Subhankar Sarkar in Sreerampur.