The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken an early lead in 63 of the 293 assembly seats in West Bengal, while the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) is ahead in 37, according to trends around 10am on Monday.
In Kolkata's Bhabanipur, BJP's Suvendu Adhikari is leading by a margin of 1,558 votes after two of the 20 rounds of counting against chief minister Mamata Banerjee in the TMC stronghold.
The TMC stormed to power in 2011, ending the 34-year Left Front rule. The BJP has made inroads in Bengal since the 2019 Lok Sabha.
As many as 152 assembly seats went to the polls on April 23 in the first phase. Polling in the remaining 142 assembly seats was held on April 29.
The turnout of 93.05% was the highest in the state's history after mass disenfranchisement of all but 1,600-odd people among the 2.71 million people flagged under the controversial logical discrepancy category in the special intensive revision of electoral rolls.
