New Delhi, May 2: Mamata Banerjee fended off a spirited challenge by a resurgent BJP in West Bengal with a landslide victory for her Trinamool Congress on Sunday for a third consecutive term and the saffron party and the BJP and LDF were poised to form government again in Assam and Kerala respectively while the DMK stormed back to power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of 10 years.
Banerjee, however, lost the Nandigram seat in a close fight with BJP candidate and her former lieutenant Suvendu Adhikari.
According to the ECI website updated at 11.15 pm, Adhikari won by a margin of 1,956 votes to retain the prestigious seat. The TMC has demanded a recount.
While the TMC, the BJP and the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) decisively beat anti-incumbency in three of the four states and Puducherry that went to polls, the saffron ally AIADMK ceded space to the opposition DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu which is set to herald a new sunrise and also rise of the son.
