Assembly Elections 2016 Results: TMC likely to better own score in West Bengal

The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC is set for a monumental win in the state, brushing aside the challenge from a Congress-CPI(M) combine

Early counting trends for the West Bengal Assembly show the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress beating its current strength in the House despite despite allegations of corruption and a major flyover collapse in the capital just ahead of the elections. 
 
The ruling party is leading in 219 in an Assembly of 294 seats. The Left Front-Congress alliance is faring poorly at 68 seats while the BJP is a surprise with 5 leads. 
 
The Trinamool Congress which was in an alliance with the Congress in 2011 had bagged 184 seats, with the Congress at 42 and the CPI(M) 40 seats. Going by trends, however, the TMC is likely to have done better going it alone this time. 

 

TMC's vote share too is likely to increase by around two percentage points to 47%. 
 
The Congress and the CPI(M) had come together in these elections in a bid to oust the Trinamool Congress in Bengal, based on the simple arithmetic of adding vote shares from the last elections. 
 
In 2011, the TMC-Congress combine had got 48.54% of votes, of which the ruling party was 38.9% and the CPI(M)  41%. Now, it appears that the math may just have been simplistic.