New Delhi: The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and Bengal's ruling Trinamool - a member (on-paper) of the Congress-led INDIA opposition bloc, although they are competing as rivals in the state after failed seat-share talks - are neck-and-neck in the race for the state's 42 Lok Sabha seats.
At 9 pm the Trinamool had won 18 seats and was leading in 11 others. The BJP had won three and was ahead in nine. And the Congress had won one.
Among the heavyweights, the Congress' Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, after surging into an early lead, lost his Baharampur seat to the Trinamool's ex-cricketer-politician candidate, Yusuf Pathan.
Senior Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee, who is also Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew, romped to victory - by over seven lakh votes - from his Diamond Harbour seat.
Also, the party's Mala Roy is holding the Kolkata Dakshin seat, which was Ms Banerjee's parliamentary seat, and Sudip Bandyopadhyay is holding on to his Kolkata Uttar seat by 83,731 votes.
Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who quit the judiciary and joined the BJP weeks before the election, is trailing to the Trinamool's Debangshu Bhattacharya from Tamluk.
The Trinamool's Mahua Moitra - suspended from the Lok Sabha last year - has fought back to retain her Krishnanagar, from where the BJP had fielded a member local royal Amrita Roy.
Another senior Trinamool leader, Sougata Ray, has won the Dum Dum seat.
The Congress' sole win was Maldaha Dakshin, which went to Isha Khan Choudhury.
Bengal is a key battleground in the 2024 Lok Sabha election - one the BJP is hoping to wrest away from Ms Banerjee and the Trinamool. A healthy score in the eastern state will also boost the BJP's bid to hit its internal target of 370 seats and the overall, much-touted, 'abki baar, 400 paar'.
Bengal Lok Sabha Election: Exit Polls
Exit polls gave the BJP an edge over the Trinamool. A poll of exit polls gave the saffron party 23 seats and reduced its rival to 18. The Congress, which got two seats in the 2019 poll, could get only one.
If that result had been delivered, it would have been a seismic result for the BJP, which has targeted Ms Banerjee and her outfit relentlessly since a thumping loss in the 2021 state election.
On Sunday, after exit poll data was released, Ms Banerjee dismissed the predictions.
READ | What Mamata Said On Exit Polls Showing BJP Ahead In Bengal
She said they were not consistent with the ground reality since they were "manufactured at home" - a jibe at the BJP and the opposition's multiple claims and warnings of vote manipulation.
"We had seen how the exit polls were conducted in 2016, 2019 and 2021. None of the predictions had turned out to be true," she told TV9-Bangla. "These exit polls were manufactured at home by some people two months back for the media consumption. They have no value," she added.
The CPIM, a waning powerhouse in the state that is competing with the Congress as part of the INDIA bloc, also junked the exit poll figures. Party leader Sujan Chakraborty junked the data.
For the BJP, state unit boss Sukunta Majumdar claimed at least 25 seats for his party.
"When I took over as state president two-and-a-half years back, I said we would cross the 25-mark in the Lok Sabha polls West Bengal... but even many in my party did not believe me. Now, not only my party, but the press and people of the state believe we will get more than 25," he declared.
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