As the results of the 17th Lok Sabha elections came on Thursday, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal won 22 out of 42 parliamentary constituencies in the state.
While the BJP has made huge strides in the eastern state by garnering 18 seats, 16 more than it had won in 2014. While the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led TMC had won 34 parliamentary seats in 2014.
Congress, on the other hand, managed to win just two seats while Left parties drew a blank.
From BJP, the winners were – Babul Supriyo (Asansol), Arjun Singh (Barrackpore), SS Ahluwalia (Burdwan-Durgapur), Locket Chatterjee (Hooghly) and Dilip Ghosh (Medinipur).
Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury defeated TMC’s Apurba Sarkar by 80,696 votes. Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee (TMC) retained his Diamond Harbour seat, defeating his BJP rival Nilanjan Roy by 3,20,594 votes.
Other TMC candidates who won from their respective seats were Sougata Roy (Dum Dum), Satabdi Roy (Birbhum), Sunil Kumar Mondal (Bardhaman Purba), Mimi Chakraborty (Jadavpur) and Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Kolkata North).
West Bengal was the main focus in this year’s general elections as BJP and TMC workers clashed with each other. The electioneering too was rhetoric with both the parties launching personal attacks against each other.
West Bengal went to polls in all seven phases from April 11 to May 19.
(With ANI inputs)