BJP wins 18 of 42 Lok Sabha seats in Mamata's citadel

KOLKATA: Coming too close for comfort for the ruling Trinamool Congress, the BJP clinched 18 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, in consonance with its impressive show throughout the country.
The TMC won 22 of the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, the Congress managed to win just two, while the Left drew a blank.
The Mamata Banerjee-led party, which had won 34 seats in the 2014 elections, and aiming to increase the tally this time, was in for a shock as the saffron surge in the state increased the BJP's tally by 16 seats from a meagre two.
Cashing in on a highly polarised campaign that saw the two parties cornering most of the vote share, the BJP got 40.25 per cent of the total votes polled in the state, while the TMC managed 43.3 per cent.
Apart from emerging victorious in 18 constituencies, the saffron party came second in 22 seats.
The Congress retained two seats - Baharampur and Maldaha Dakshin, while losing two others, where it had won in the last elections.
The CPM-led Left Front, which had ruled West Bengal for 34 years, could not win any seat in the state.
The saffron surge was most visible in north Bengal and the once-Maoist infested Jangalmahal area, where it made a clean sweep.
The BJP won Alipurduars, Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling, Raiganj, Balurghat and Maldaha Uttar seats and came a close second in Maldaha Dakshin.
The saffron party also emerged victorious in Jangalmahal and adjoining areas, claiming Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura and Bishnupur constituencies.
Union minister Babul Supriyo increased his margin in Asansol, while his colleague S S Ahluwalia, wrested neighbouring Burdwan-Durgapur from the TMC.
The TMC managed to hold on to south Bengal, winning most of its 22 seats from this belt.
It retained both the seats in the state capital, Kolkata Uttar and Kolkata Dakshin.
In Diamond Harbour, sitting TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, won by 3,20,594 votes over his nearest rival Nilanjan Roy of the BJP.
The TMC candidate, who is the nephew of party supremo Mamata Banerjee, polled 7,91,127 votes, while the BJP nominee got 4,70,533 votes.
Amid the saffron storm, TMC candidate and sitting MP Aparupa Poddar managed to retain the Arambagh seat, winning with a slender margin of 1,142 votes.
The Election Commission declared on Friday that Poddar got 6,49,929 votes, while her nearest rival Tapan Kumar Roy of the BJP polled 6,48,787 votes.
In north Bengal's Alipurduars, where tea garden workers form a substantial voter base, John Barla of the BJP won by a huge margin of 2,43,989 votes.
Barla defeated Dasrath Tirkey of the TMC, the sitting MP from the constituency. While the BJP candidate polled 7,50,804 votes, his nearest rival Tirkey bagged 5,06,815 votes.
In the neighbouring Jalpaiguri seat, BJP candidate Jayanta Kumar Roy defeated sitting TMC MP Bijoy Chandra Barman by 1,84,004 votes.
Roy polled 7,60,145 votes, while Barman got 5,76,141 votes.
In the Maldaha Dakshin seat, sitting Congress MP Abu Hasem Khan Chowdhury managed to retain the seat by a modest margin of 8,222 votes, defeating BJP candidate Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury.
While Khan Chowdhury polled 4,44,270 votes, Chowdhury got 4,36,048 votes.
In Baharampur, Congress candidate and sitting MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury won by a comfortable margin of 80,696 votes, defeating TMC candidate Apurba Sarkar.
Chowdhury polled 5,91,106 votes, while the TMC candidate, a former compatriot of the Congress MP before switching sides, got 5,10,410 votes.
In Joynagar seat, TMC candidate Pratima Mondal, who is the sitting MP from the constituency, defeated BJP candidate Ashok Kandary by a huge margin of 3,16,775 votes.
While Mondal polled 7,61,202 votes, the BJP candidate got 4,44,427 votes.
In the Howrah constituency, TMC candidate and sitting MP Prasun Banerjee defeated his nearest BJP rival Rantideb Sengupta by 1,03,695 votes.
The TMC candidate polled 5,76,711 votes, while the BJP candidate got 4,73,016 votes.
Kunar Hembram of the BJP won by a margin of 11,767 votes in the Jhargram constituency, defeating TMC's Birbaha Soren. Hembram polled 6,26,583 votes, while the TMC candidate got 6,14,816 votes.
In Purulia, BJP candidate Jyotirmoy Singh Mahato beat sitting TMC MP Mriganka Mahato by 2,04,732 votes.
While the BJP candidate polled 6,68,107 votes, the TMC nominee got 4,63,375 votes.