Election Results: Counting of votes is on for Assam, Bengal, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu polls.
Mamata Banerjee on Sunday won a spectacular victory in Bengal, defeating the BJP in elections in the middle of a raging pandemic. The DMK is back in Tamil Nadu after 10 years. The LDF has retained Kerala; Assam has voted for BJP again.
Here are the top 10 updates on assembly election results 2021:
- Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress won 208 seats and is leading in five more of Bengal's 294 seats - bettering its 2016 tally (209) despite the near-invincible election machine of the BJP, which has failed to cross double digits. "Bengal has saved India," she said, deriding the BJP for its big loss after a "double century" claim.
- But Mamata Banerjee was defeated by the BJP's Suvendhu Adhikari - her former close aide - in Nandigram. "I accept the verdict, it is not a big thing," she said, adding that she would approach the court over malpractices.
- The BJP has made substantial gains in Bengal, becoming the main opposition party as its tally went from just three seats in 2016 to nearly 80.
- In Tamil Nadu, the DMK is set to return to power after defeating its main rival AIADMK, which has an alliance with the BJP. MK Stalin's DMK and its allies are leading in 158 seats and the AIADMK, in 76.
- In Kerala, the incumbent LDF is leading in 99 of 140 seats and has bucked a 40-year tradition by getting reelected. The Congress-led UDF is leading in 41 seats.
- The Congress's second disappointment is in Assam, where the ruling BJP is leading in 75 of 126 seats, comfortably placed to retain power.
- In Puducherry, the N Rangaswamy's AINRC-led alliance - of which the BJP is a part - is leading in 16 of the 30 assembly seats while the Congress is ahead in 9.
- Voting for these elections took place in March and April, just as India started reporting thousands of fresh coronavirus infections every day. On March 14, two weeks before the first phase, there were fewer than 25,000 new cases a day. On March 27 there were around 62,000 and, by April 29, there were well over 3.5 lakh per day. On Saturday, new cases reached a record daily high of 401,993, the biggest across the world.
- Alongside the Covid spike, leaders of all political parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, led political rallies at which large crowds discarded safety rules on masks and social distancing.
- PM Modi, in a tweet wishing Ms Banerjee, wrote: "Congratulations to Mamata Didi for Trinamool Congress' win in West Bengal. The Centre will continue to extend all possible support to the West Bengal Government to fulfil people's aspirations and also to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic."
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