West Bengal election results: Mamata Banerjee’s winning margin, BJP’s rise and Left’s debacle

Shortly after noon, Chief Minister and party chief Mamata Banerjee addressed the media at her residence in Kalighat, in the heart of Kolkata.

Read: Behind Mamata Banerjee’s landslide victory in Bengal, old ghosts versus new promise

Banerjee, who is going to be elected chief of the Trinamool Congress legislature party Friday, said she will take oath of office on May 27 and her new government should be in place by May 29.

Here are the key things that went down behind Mamata Banerjee securing a second term in the state:

The Wide

107,701 votes
Rajib Banerjee (TMC) scored the highest victory margin. He defeated Protima Dutta (Ind) in Domjur

The Narrow

280 votes
Abdur Rahaman (TMC) scored the narrowest victory. He defeated Ali Mortuza Khan (Cong) in Murarai

Read: With Mukul, Derek and Abhishek by side, Mamata looks towards the future

The Incumbent

25,301 votes
CM Mamata Banerjee faced a strong challenge from Deepa Das Munsi but won comprehensively in the end

The Turnout

80%
Voting turnout in six phases of Bengal polls, down from 84 per cent in 2011

Despite Narada

A scam loses its sting

The Narada sting that the opposition played up had no effect on the election results. Top Trinamool Congress candidates whose names figured in the sting won their seats.
* Sovan Chatterjee won Behala East
* Subrata Mukherjee won Ballygunj
* Firhad Hakim won Kolkata Port
* Iqbal Ahmed won Khanakul
* Subhendu Adhikary won Nandigram

Read: ‘This isn’t any victory, this is vindication’: TMC supporters

Shock Defeat

Surjya Kanta Mishra
The CPM state secretary lost to Pradyut Ghosh of TMC in Narayangarh

Madan Mitra
Currently in jail for his alleged involvement in the Saradha chit fund scam, the former TMC minister lost to CPM’s Manash Mukherjee in Kamarhati

The Celebs

Bhutia vs Asok
Siliguri was one high-profile constituency where the Left-Congress alliance did beat the Trinamool Congress, with former minister Asok Bhattacharya beating footballer Bhaichung Bhutia by 14,072 votes.

Roopa vs Shukla
Former Bengal cricket captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla won Howrah North on a Trinamool ticket, defeating his nearest rival of Congress by 26,959 votes. Roopa Ganguly finished third in this seat, polling 31,416 votes while Shukla polled almost twice as many, 61,917.

BJP’s surge

The BJP’s three seats and the three won by its partner GJM were spread across the state. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh won Kharagpur Sadar in West Midnapore and the other victories came in Madarihat (Alipurduar) and Baishabnagar (Malda). Former state president Rahul Sinha and Samik Bhattacharya, however, lost
their contests.

Read: For BJP in West Bengal, win some, lose some: vote share down, seat count up

NOTA count

8,31, 845
1.5% of votes polled