Trinamul leads in 29 seats, BJP down to 12

Even before the poll bugle was sounded, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had asserted she alone would be enough to stop the BJP juggernaut in Bengal. On Tuesday, Didi seems to be well on way to prove it.

Till 2.25 pm, the Trinamul was leading in 29, out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while the principal opposition party, the BJP, the clear favourite of pollsters, barely touched double figures, down to 12, from its 2019 tally of 18.

An injured and ailing Mamata had led the campaign from the front with her focus on the welfare schemes that her government had launched in the last three years, especially the Lakshmir Bhandar cash incentive scheme.