West Bengal bypolls: Babul Supriyo, Shatrughan Sinha lead in early trends

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal is leading the Ballygunge Assembly seat and the Asansol Lok Sabha constituency in the early trends while the counting of votes for the bypolls is underway.

From the Ballygunge constituency, TMC's Babul Supriyo is leading by 8109 votes. The BJP has fielded Keya Ghosh while Saira Shah Halim is the CPI(M) candidate from the Assembly bypoll.

The TMC has fielded former Union Minister Shatrughan Sinha while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominated Agnimitra Paul from the Asansol constituency for the bypoll. Sinha is also leading in the early trends of the counting of votes.

In the state Assembly elections last year, TMC won 213 seats while BJP on the other hand garnered 77 seats in the 294-seat state Assembly. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Supriyo had defeated TMC candidate Moon Moon Sen by a massive margin of 1,97,637 votes, securing 51.56 per cent of the total votes polled.

The by-polls were necessitated after former Union Minister Babul Supriyo resigned as the Lok Sabha MP of Asansol after resigning from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He later joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC). The Ballygunge Assembly seat bypoll was necessitated after the demise of state Minister Subrata Mukherjee.

Earlier today, TMC candidate Babul Supriyo on Saturday exuded confidence in winning the election and said the people of West Bengal are with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"I'm confident. The 41 per cent voters turnout here rubbished the opposition's unnecessary claim of false voting. Had that been the case, would turnout have been this huge? West Bengal is with Didi and TMC", said Babul Supriyo.

Voting for the bypolls was held on April 12.