With 11 more rounds of counting pending for the repolling of Falta Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Debangshu Panda, has surged ahead with a lead margin of 38,940 votes. The total counting rounds will be 21, and as of the 10th round, the BJP candidate had garnered 64,238 votes.
In contrast, the CPI(M) candidate, Sambhunath Kurmi, has solidified his second position with 25,298 votes at the end of the 10th round of counting. Meanwhile, the Congress party candidate, Abdur Razzak, lags behind in the third position with 6,429 votes.
Throughout the counting process that began at 8 a.m. on Sunday, the Trinamool Congress candidate Jahangir Khan has consistently held the fourth position with 3,304 votes. This trend in Falta presents a stark difference from the outcomes in both the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress’ Shankar Kumar Nashkar won from Falta by a margin of 41,000 votes. Falta is one of the seven Assembly constituencies under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, which has been represented three times by Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata Banerjee’s nephew.
During the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Falta Assembly constituency provided Banerjee with a lead margin of approximately 1,20,000 votes, leading to criticism from opposition parties who viewed it as a mockery of the polling process. A state BJP leader highlighted the significant margin of over 7,00,000 votes from Diamond Harbour in 2024, attributing it to Abhishek Banerjee’s victory.
At the time of reporting, there had been no reactions from opposition parties, including Trinamool Congress, CPI(M), and Congress, regarding the ongoing trends.
