West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday congratulated the BJP as it was seen powering through as counting of votes in the Lok Sabha election was being held.

“Congratulations to the winners. But all losers are not losers. We have to do a complete review and then we will share our views with you all. Let the counting process be completed fully and the VVPATs matched,” Mamata Banerjee tweeted.

Also Read | With double-digit gains, BJP breaches Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal citadel

According to the leads, the BJP was set to win 346 seats, UPA 91, BSP-SP alliance 19 and others 86 in the Lok Sabha election held on 542 of the 543 seats. Elections were cancelled in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore.

The BJP alone is leading in 292 seats, well over the halfway mark of 272, and if the party wins all of these, it will improve upon its 2014 tally of 282.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party also made deep inroads in West Bengal, increasing its vote share by more than 20 percentage points from 17.02% in 2014 to about 39% (till 1 pm) and was leading in 16 of Bengal’s 42 seats against their 2014 tally of only two seats.

Though ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) increased its vote share by about 5 percentage points to about 45% (till 1 pm) from 39.79% (in 2014), the party was leading in 25 seats against their tally of 34 five years ago.

Click here for Lok Sabha Election Results 2019

A significant development in Bengal was the reduction of the Left and the Congress into fringe forces. While the Left managed a vote share of a shade below 7%, the Congress dipped to below 6%.

First Published: May 23, 2019 13:43 IST