Left takes a hit in West Bengal

Kolkata, : For the first time in nearly three decades, the Left bastion in West Bengal has been cracked.The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress and the Pranab Mukherjee-led Congress are together leading in 11 of the 15 Lok Sabha constituencies for which trends were available on Saturday morning.

External Affairs Minister and WBPCC chief Pranab Mukherjee is leading in the Jangipur constituency over CPI(M) candidate Mriganka Bhattacharya.Former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh (BJP) was ahead of his nearest Congress rival Dawa Narbula by 7,343 votes in Darjeeling constituency.Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee was ahead of her CPI(M) rival Robin Deb by 6,813 votes in the Kolkata South constituency.

Basudeb Acharya (CPI-M) was leading over Subrata Mukherjee (Congress) by 4,500 votes after the first round of counting in Bankura constituency.CPI(M) candidate Md Selim was trailing by a slender margin of 2,044 votes to his nearest Trinamool rival Sudip Bandopadhyay in the Kolkata North constituency.Others leading include Dipa Dasmunshi and Adhir Chowdhury (both Congress) and Subhendu Adhikary and Kabir Suman (Trinamool Congress).

ANI