The Bharatiya Janata Party appeared coasting to a historic victory in Assam while Mamata Banerjee and J. Jayalalithaa looked set to retain power in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, Assembly election trends showed on Thursday evening.
In Kerala, the Left Democratic Front seemed on track to secure a majority of its own, replacing the Congress-led United Democratic Front.
In Assam, the BJP-led alliance led in 83 seats while the Congress was at 26. Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front led in nine constituencies.
In West Bengal, the election commission trends at 1pm showed Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress leading in 215 of the state’s 294 constituencies – a two-thirds majority and a improvement over its showing in the last Assembly elections. The Congress is a distant second at 43 seats while the Left relegated to the third position.
In Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa appeared set to buck the trend of the state throwing out incumbents and emulate her mentor and charismatic actor M.G. Ramachandran. The AIADMK led in 129 seats while the DMK-Congress alliance was ahead in 100.
In Kerala, the LDF led in 92 seats, far above the majority mark of 71 with the UDF at 46.
In Puducherry, the Congress led in 10, the AIADMK in 3 and the All India NR Congress in eight of the union territory’s 30 seats.