Throughout the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, a sharp exchange of words was witnessed. West Bengal's seats saw voting in each phase of the elections. As the elections concluded, the key question on everyone's mind is whether Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) can hold its fort or how the Indian People's Party (BJP) will make inroads. The final picture of seat distribution will only become clear with the results on June 4th, but what do the exit polls predict?

According to exit polls, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) might secure 46%, TMC 40%, and the Congress-Left alliance about 12% of votes. India Today Axis My India Exit Poll suggests that NDA could win between 26 and 31 seats. TMC is estimated to garner 11 to 14 seats, and the India Block could end up with zero to two seats.

Source: aajtak

Discussing the hot seats, Congress's Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and former cricketer Yusuf Pathan from TMC are contesting the Baharampur seat, witnessing a triangular fight with BJP also in contention. In Basirhat's Sandeshkhali, which is a part of this Lok Sabha constituency, competition is tough. The exit polls by India Today Axis My India suggest an upper hand for TMC's candidate Haji Nurul Islam.

Source: aajtak

Voting for West Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha seats was conducted across all seven phases. The first phase on April 19 included voting for the Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, and Jalpaiguri seats. The second phase on April 26 included Darjeeling, Raiganj, Balurghat, and the northern parts of Malda, followed by the southern parts and Murshidabad in the third phase on May 7.

The fourth phase on May 13 witnessed voting for Baharampur, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Burdwan, Burdwan-Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur, and Birbhum. The fifth phase saw voting for Bangaon, Barrackpore, Howrah, Uluberia, Srirampur, Hooghly, and Arambagh. The sixth phase on May 25 accounted for Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura, and Bishnupur. Finally, the seventh phase included Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar, Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Jadavpur, Kolkata South, and Kolkata North.

Source: aajtak

The Heavyweights in the Field

From the leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, to the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek Banerjee, various prominent leaders are in the fray. Adhir Ranjan is the Congress candidate from Baharampur, while Yusuf Pathan competes on the TMC ticket. TMC's Abhishek Banerjee is contesting from Diamond Harbour, with 'Shotgun' Shatrughan Sinha from Asansol and Mahua Moitra from Krishnanagar as candidates.

Union Minister Nishith Pramanik from Cooch Behar and Locket Chatterjee from Hooghly are the BJP's candidates in the field. Sukanta Majumdar is BJP's pick from Balurghat. BJP's Shantanu Thakur faces the electoral battle from Bangaon with Abhijit Ganguly from Tamluk and Soumendu Adhikari from Kanthi with their reputations on the line.

2019 Elections: The Seat Distribution

In the last election, BJP candidates won 18 out of 42 seats in West Bengal. BJP's vote share was marked at 40.3%. TMC achieved success by winning 22 seats with a vote share of 43.7%. Congress managed to secure only two seats with a vote share of 5.7%.