"BJP to win less than 50 seats": Abhishek Banerjee casts vote in Kolkata, exudes confidence in TMC's victory

Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday cast his vote at Mitra Institute polling booth at Bhabanipur Assembly constituency.

Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday cast his vote at Mitra Institute polling booth at Bhabanipur Assembly constituency. Expressing confidence in the TMC's victory, Abhishek Banerjee said that the BJP will be reduced to 50 seats.

The TMC MP told reporters, "They said that in 2021. You go and ask them. You said it is going to be a clean sweep for the BJP every time. But whenever the numbers have been revealed, or the electoral outcome came, it became the other way round. So, the onus is on you to go and ask the BJP leaders that every time they have predicted something, eventually it has turned in TMC's favour. Amit Shah said they will get 200 seats in 2021, but the TMC crossed 200 seats. They said that they will get 30 seats in Bengal in the Lok Sabha, and TMC got 29 seats. This time they are saying 177, so by their track record, they will go down below 50." Abhishek Banerjee also accused the Poll Observers of flouting their guidelines.

He said, "Polling has just started, we should wait for another hour before drawing conclusions. Election Observers are flouting the Supreme Court and the High Court's guidelines and the guidelines in the Election Observers handbook. They are subservient to their political masters in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. None of these tricks will work. When the ballots open, the TMC will come back with a bigger majority. We have written to the CEC; now it is for them to act." Bhabanipur Assembly constituency in West Bengal is a hot pot of politics, witnessing a high-voltage clash between the two heavyweights, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.

Bhabanipur is witnessing a repeat clash between the sitting MLA and Trinamool Congress candidate Mamata Banerjee and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari. Adhikari had also challenged Mamata from Nandigram in the 2021 West Bengal polls, from where he won by 1,956 votes. Following her defeat, the TMC supremo contested the bypoll from Bhabanipur, as MLA Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay resigned from the seat.

In the 2021 polls in Bhabanipur, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay won with a huge margin of 28,719 against the BJP candidate Rudranil Ghosh. Earlier today, Suvendu Adhikari visited and examined a polling booth in the Bhabanipur constituency.

The second phase of the polling is widely seen as the 'litmus test' for the Trinamool Congress (TMC), as voting moves into the party's traditional fortresses in South Bengal and Kolkata. The second phase covers 142 out of 294 seats in West Bengal. The total electorate is around 3.21 crore, with 1,64,35,627 men, 1,57,37,418 women and 792 transgender voters.

1,448 candidates are in the fray, including 220 women at 41,001 polling stations, with over 8,000 managed entirely by women. While 142 seats are up for grabs, all eyes are on the 'Big Five' urban contests. Apart from the high-stakes seat of Bhabanipur, Tollyganj, the heart of the Bengali film industry, is a high-profile, star-studded battle.

In the 2021 elections, the TMC dominated this specific belt, winning 123 of these 142 seats. For the BJP, this phase is about making inroads into the urban "bhadralok" vote and the Matua community. For the TMC, it is about holding the line to ensure a fourth consecutive term for Mamata Banerjee. (ANI)