Left to secure overwhelming majority : Exit polls

Kolkata, May 08 (UNI) The Left Front will make a clean sweep in the six north Bengal districts that went to polls in the fifth and last phase of assembly election today, according to exit polls in the regional news channels.

Three major regional channels indicated that the LF will bag majority of the 49 seats in the districts of Cooch Behar, North and South Dinajpur, Malda and Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri, signalling a return of the present government.

'Star Ananda' gave the Left Front 35 of the 49 seats, Congress 10, Trinamool Congress 1 and GNLF 3.

According to them the Left would lose one seat, the Congress would gain 2 while the position of the Trinamool Congress remains unchanged compared to the 2001 polls.

The channel's poll shows that out of the total 294(election was countermanded in one seat) seats the Front would get 208, the Congress 44, the Trinamool Congress 33 and others 8.

'Kolkata TV' went with the trend, quoting 31 seats in favour of the ruling combine, 3 for the Trinamool Congress and 12 for the Congress. They also gave Independents three seats.

Compared to the last assembly elections, this time the Left would lose 5 seats while the Congress and the Trinamool Congress would gain 4 and 2 seats respectively, they predicted.

According to the channel's survey, out of the 293 seats, the Left Front would get 195 to 210 seats, the Congress 48 to 46, the Trinamool Congress 30 to 35 seats and Independents 7 to 9.

However, 'Chobbis Ghonta" (24-hrs) predicted that the Left would secure 37 seats, the Congress 8, the Trinamool Congress one and others three in today's polls.

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