The Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance established an early lead in West Bengal, leading in 11 of the 15 Lok Sabha constituencies for which trends were available till 09.30 am today.
External Affairs Minister and WBPCC chief Pranab Mukherjee was leading in Jangipur constituency over CPI(M) candiate Mriganka Bhattacharya. Former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh (BJP) was ahead of his nearest Congress rival Dawa Narbula by 7,343 votes in Darjeeling constituency.
Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee was ahead of her CPI(M) rival Robin Deb by 6,813 votes in the Kolkata South constituency.
Basudeb Acharya (CPI-M) was leading over Subrata Mukherjee (Congress) by 4,500 votes after the first round of counting in Bankura constituency. CPI(M) candidate Md Selim was trailing by a slender margin of 2,044 votes to his nearest Trinamool rival Sudip Bandopadhyay in the Kolkata North constituency.
Others leading include Dipa Dasmunshi and Adhir Chowdhury (both Congress) and Subhendu Adhikary and Kabir Suman (Trinamool Congress).