Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari is leading against his former mentor and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the closely watched Nandigram contest.
According to the Election Commission’s dashboard at 11 am, Suvendu is leading in Nandigram with 15,623 votes while Mamata is trailing by 4,728 votes. The trends are predicting that Mamata could reduce the deficit as the day passes. Did the West Bengal Chief Minister make a mistake by not contesting in two constituencies?
Suvendu was Mamata’s closest aide when the former was in the Trinamool Congress (TMC). He helped the TMC win from Nandigram numerous times. However, everything changed when Suvendu joined the BJP in December 2020. Following Suvendu’s exit, several TMC leaders also joined the saffron party. The national leadership of the BJP and the TMC indulged in aggressive election campaigning.
However, the TMC is likely to cross the majority in the West Bengal Assembly elections. According to EC’s dashboard at 11 am, the ruling TMC is currently is leading 158 constituencies while the BJP is leading in 74. Despite trailing in West Bengal, the BJP has shown better performance in comparison to the 2016 West Bengal Assembly elections.
