Trinamool Congress sweeps Calcutta

The bad news for the Trinamool was, however, that it was trailing by over 30,000 votes in Howrah which it had won by 6,000 votes last time. Of the 42 seats in the State, the Trinamool-BJP combine had been leading in only five, other than the three Calcutta seats the results of which were officially declared.In 1998, the Trinamool won seven seats, all inCalcutta and its neighbourhood, and the BJP one.

Mamata herself won again with a massive margin of almost 2,14,000 votes, which was, however, less than her margin of 2,24,000 last time. But this was because the polling in Calcutta was about 5 per cent less than last time.

The victory margin of Trinamool8217;s senior leader Ajit Panja in Calcutta Northeast also dropped from 64,000 to 41,700 this time. By contrast, the Trinamool nominee from Calcutta Northeast Sudip Bandyopadhyay increased his margin from 73,000 last time to 94,200.