New Delhi:
In what could be a major setback for the Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) in West Bengal, the party candidate and Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee is traling from the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat, according to the initial trend following the three hours of counting for General lections 2019. Abhishek, who was pitted against BJP's Nilanjan Roy, Congress' Soumya Aich Roy and CPM's Fuad Halim, is a sitting MP from the seat. Earlier, the 10 am trend suggested that Banerjee was leading by 17,717 votes from Diamond Harbour.
As per the latest trend, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in a thumping performance, is leading in 16 Lok Sabha seats while the Trinamool Congress till maintains its hold with wins in 24 constituencies across the state. The Congress's tally has been stuck to two during the initial three hours of counting.
Counting of votes for 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal began at 8 am on Thursday. Elections in the state were held in seven-phases beginning April 11, with 466 candidates, including 54 women, in the fray.
Besides imposing prohibitory order under section 144 within 100-metre radius of the counting venues, there will be a three-tier security cordon. Only authorised persons will be allowed to enter the counting venues. For each of the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies, there will be a counting observer to monitor the entire process.
Other than the returning officer, assistant returning officers and observers, no other people will be allowed to use mobile phones inside the counting venues. A videographer will document the counting process in each counting centre. All the counting centres have been kept under strict vigilance of CCTVs. The Election Commission (EC) will declare trends at the end of each round of counting.
