With only four rounds of counting remaining, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is behind Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari by 563 votes in the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency in south Kolkata. The counting in Bhabanipur consists of a total of 20 rounds, with 16 rounds completed at the time of reporting.
According to official figures from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal, after the 16th round of counting, Mamata Banerjee had garnered 53,369 votes, while Suvendu Adhikari had secured 53,932 votes. Adhikari has already been declared elected from his native Nandigram Assembly constituency in East Midnapore district.
Following the 16th round of counting, Mamata Banerjee left the counting center at Shakhawat Memorial Government Girls’ School in south Kolkata and returned to her residence at Kalighat. Before departing, she expressed that the election outcome in West Bengal did not accurately represent the people’s mandate.
In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, Adhikari won from Nandigram, defeating Mamata Banerjee by a margin of just under 2,000 votes. Subsequently, she won a by-election from Bhabanipur and secured her position as Chief Minister for the third consecutive term. During that time, Mamata Banerjee’s victory margin from Bhabanipur was slightly under 59,000 votes.
