Mamata to continue as Bengal CM as Trinamool heads for landslide victory

Kolkata, May 19: Ruling Trinamool Congress is headed for a landslide victory in West Bengal Assembly elections as the party has so far won 41 seats and is leading in 173.

The Left-Congress alliance did not make much impact despite predictions by political pundits, as they are leading in only 78 seats and have bagged five seats so far in the 294-member state Assembly.

"It is an unprecedented victory despite a joint opposition unleashing violence. I thank the people of Bengal from bottom of my heart for keeping faith in Trinamool Congress. The opposition had spun a web of lies which has been rejected," Chief Minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee said.

Banerjee said she will take oath on May 27. The BJP, which had only one MLA in the outgoing Assembly, is leading in three seats.

During the last Assembly polls, which led to the fall of the 34-year-old rule of the Left Front government, Trinamool had won 184 seats in alliance with Congress.

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has won one seat and is leading in another two seats. Nandigram constituency in East Midnapore district, where a violent anti-land acquisition movement had helped Trinamool come to power for the first time in 2011, was retained by the party.

TMC MP Suvendu Adhikari won by a heavy margin of 81,230 votes against his nearest Left Front rival Abdul Kabir Seikh.

West Bengal Finance and Industry Minister Amit Mitra retained his Khardaha seat by defeating CPI(M)'s Asim Kumar Dasgupta by 21,200 vote.

Former Bengal cricket captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla won the Howrah North seat on a Trinamool ticket by defeating his nearest rival Santosh Kumar Pathak of Congress by 26,959 votes.