Lok Sabha Exit Polls 2024: BJP Leads Over TMC In Tight West Bengal Contest

West Bengal is set to give a major fillip to the Bharatiya Janta Party's goals in the state, as four exit polls predict the saffron party bagging a higher number of Lok Sabha seats than the Trinamool Congress.

The poll by Jan Ki Baat has predicted between 21 and 26 seats for the BJP and 16-18 for the TMC.

The numbers for India News-D-Dynamics are 21 for the BJP and 19 for the TMC, while Republic Bharat-Matrize has given the BJP between 21 and 25 seats, predicting that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's party will be reduced to between 16 and 20.

A poll by local news network R Bangla has predicted a reversal of 2019, giving the BJP 22 seats and the TMC 18.

In 2019, the TMC secured 22 seats, while the BJP took home 18. The Congress bagged two seats, while the CPI(M)-led Left Front drew a blank. West Bengal sends 42 MPs to Lok Sabha.

The polls give Congress a maximum of two seats, which is the number it had won in 2019. One of the winners was Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the current leader of Congress in the lower house.

The BJP has been mounting a major challenge to the state's ruling TMC, turning up the heat on the Mamata Banerjee government. Despite the surge in 2019, the PM Narendra Modi-led party was routed in the 2021 Assembly elections, even as it emerged as TMC's principle opposition in the eastern state.

The world's largest democratic exercise drew to a close at 6 p.m. on June 1, after running for a record 44 days from April 19 to June 1, with nearly 1 billion eligible voters.

The elections for the 543 contested Lok Sabha seats saw BJP-led NDA and Congress-led INDIA bloc facing off against each other.

Phase 7 of the elections saw a voter turnout of approximately 59.05% across the country, whereas Phase 6 and Phase 5 recorded 63.36% and 62.2% turnout, respectively.

(Disclaimer: Exit poll data may not always be accurate.)