In an exponential leap.the BJP which won only two seats in Bengal in 2014, is projected to win 19-23 seats while the Trinamool Congress which won 34 seats in 2014 could end up with just 19 to 22 seats.

Times Now-VMR exit poll results suggest that the BJP is likely to improve its tally from 2 in 2014 to 11 in 2019. The TMC may register the victory in 28 constituencies.

Exit polls are not always accurate and the official results are still four days away.

Here is a look at numbers:

Bengal is a focus state where it deployed its entire might to win at least 22-23 seats, triggering a virulent, no-holds-barred counter-attack from the TMC with Mamata Banerjee vowing to make a clean sweep in the state. Her resolve stems from the compulsion to protect her home turf as well as emerging as a key player in Delhi if the opposition parties get a shot at power.

Watch: Live analysis of Exit Polls 2019

On the surface, both the camps are upbeat. But TMC leaders are a bit more tense perhaps owing to a perceptible degree of anti-incumbency against the ruling party that seemed to be growing as the election phases progressed in the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed 17 election rallies in Bengal. Mamata Banerjee spoke at close to 100.

The BJP ran the campaign alleging that the chief minister and her nephew, Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee encouraged corruption and directly benefitted from it and promising to liberate the people of the state from the tyranny of the ruling party. They also promised to weed out infiltrators by conducting a National Register of Citizens (NRC) like in Assam and restore the religious rights of the majority.

Mamata Banerjee has painted Modi as a dangerous man out to destroy democratic institutions in the country. She claims that the BJP was a party that was out to import culture of the Hindi heartland into Bengal and that she should be trusted as the person to protect the inclusive and liberal ethos of Bengal.

She also alleged that in Bengal the Left, Congress and the BJP entered a clandestine understanding against her.

These elections are the first proper four-cornered contest in West Bengal and it has added to the unpredictability of the results.

First Published: May 19, 2019 20:07 IST