West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress party is expected to win 156 of the state's 294 seats but the BJP will score a strong 121 seats, says NDTV's poll of exit polls at the close of marathon state elections held since March. An aggregate of six exit polls predicts that Mamata Banerjee will make it past the half-way mark, enough to win a third straight term.
The Congress is up for disappointment in Assam, the exit polls suggest, with the BJP expected to retain power by winning 72 of 126 seats. The Congress is likely to win 53 seats, say the polls.
An aggregate of five exit polls showed the LDF front is likely to win 85 of 140 seats - ahead of the half-way mark - and the Congress-led UDF at 53 seats, the polls say. The BJP is set to make its presence felt with two seats.
Exit polls often get the results wrong. The counting of votes for assembly elections to four states -- Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu -- and one Union Territory, Puducherry, will be done on May 2.
The polls, which started on March 27 and ended today, were held for 294 seats in West Bengal, 234 seats in Tamil Nadu, 140 seats in Kerala, 126 seats in Assam and 30 seats in the union territory of Puducherry.
