'Left is the alternative in West Bengal': D. Raja

Despite the exit polls predicting the TMC's return to power in West Bengal, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja on Thursday said Left is the alternative and force to be reckoned with in the Mamata Banerjee-ruled bastion.

Raja told ANI that counting of votes is in progress, adding the Left is in fact not losing in West Bengal.

"In fact, we were contending for power, we were fighting for power. And we expected that we would improve our position drastically and let us wait till the counting is over because anything can happen but we fought and we thought that we would be able to improve our position in a big way in the state of West Bengal," Raja said.

"Even today in Bengal, the Left is the contender. Left is the force to be reckoned with or in a way Left is the alternative at any point of time," he added.

In West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is constructing another sweep, with her TMC ahead in 206 of the state's 294 seats. The Left-Congress alliance is trailing far behind with 65 seats.

The BJP in leading in seven seats while others are ahead in 11 seats.

The Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for providing online information of trends and results of counting.