Kolkata, May 24 (IANS) After the first round of counting for the repolling of the Falta Assembly constituency on Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Debnagshi Panda, is comfortably ahead of his closest opponents.

As per available information from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, after the first round of counting, the total number of votes polled by the BJP candidate stands at 9,534, followed by CPI(M)’s Sambhunath Kurmi at 448 and Congress candidate Abdur Razzak at 225 votes.

Trinamool Congress candidate, Jahangir Khan, who once held the final word at Falta, has been placed in the fourth position, securing just 210 votes at the end of the first round.

Altogether, there will be 21 rounds of counting, and the result is expected to be clear by 1 p.m. But the BJP supporters, assembled outside the polling centre, have already started celebrating and distributing sweets among the people there.

“Since the Trinamool Congress came to power in West Bengal in 2011, there was not a single election where the voters of Falta could vote fearlessly in an intimidation-free ambience. Even many Trinamool Congress supporters could not cast their votes in the previous elections, since Jahangir Khan and his gang did not trust them. However, on the day of repolling, there was absolutely peaceful polling with everyone able to cast a vote. We are confident that at the end of the counting, our candidate Debangshi Panda will win by a massive margin,” said a BJP supporter outside the polling centre.

On May 4, the results for 293 of the 294 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, except Falta, were announced. While the BJP had a landslide victory, winning 207 constituencies, the Trinamool Congress got reduced to just 80.

While Congress candidates emerged victors in two constituencies, the CPI(M) and All India Secular Front (AISF) won one seat each. The Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP)’s founder and former Trinamool Congress legislator, Humayun Kabir, got elected from both the constituencies he contested from, namely Naoda and Rejinagar, both in the minority-dominated Murshidabad district. Now, in the event of the BJP candidate winning from Falta, as trends indicate, the tally for the ruling party in the state Assembly will be 208.

–IANS

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