KOLKATA: The TMC surged ahead of its rivals as it was leading in 24 seats, whereas the BJP was leading in seven and the Congress in three seats after the initial round of counting, the Election Commission website said.

TMC candidate and sitting MP Abhishek Banerjee is leading in Diamond Harbour constituency over his nearest rival BJP’s Abhijit Das by a margin of 96,507 votes.

TMC’s Hooghly candidate Rachana Banerjee was over her nearest BJP rival and sitting MP Locket Chatterjee by a margin of over five thousand votes.

TMC candidate and two-time MP Asit Mal was leading from Bolpur over her nearest rival BJP’s Piya Saha by 6,010 votes.

In Malda Dakshin, Congress candidate Isha Khan Choudhury was leading by 11,733 votes over his nearest BJP rival Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury.

In Jadavpur, TMC’s Sayani Ghosh was leading by 8,048 votes over her nearest BJP rival Anirban Ganguly.

In Malda Uttar, sitting MP and BJP candidate Khagen Murmu was leading by a margin of 11,119 votes over his nearest rival TMC’s Prasun Banerjee.

In Cooch Behar, BJP candidate and sitting MP Nisiht Pramanik was trailing by a margin of 5,529 votes against his TMC candidate Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia.

In Krishnanagar’s seat, BJP candidate Amrita Roy was leading by over 12,000 votes against her nearest rival of the TMC’s Mahua Moitra.

BJP candidate Rekha Patra of Basirhat, where Sandeshkhali is situated, was trailing against her nearest rival of TMC’s Sheikh Nurul Islam by a margin of over his nearest rival TMC’s Biswajit Das by over 8,480 votes.

Heavyweight BJP candidate and BJP candidate Shantanu Thakur was leading in West Bengal’s Bongaon seat- a Matua bastion – over his nearest rival TMC’s Biswajit Das by over 5,389 votes.

In Murshidabad constituency, CPI(M) state secretary Mohammed Salim was leading by a margin of 826 votes over his nearest rival of the TMC, Abu Taher Khan.

Heavyweight BJP candidate and state president Sukanta Majumdar was trailing in West Bengal’s Balurghat seat over his nearest rival TMC’s Biplab Mitra by 9554 votes, as per the EC website.

BJP candidate S S Ahluwalia was leading in West Bengal’s Asansol seat over his nearest rival TMC’s Shatrughan Sinha by 6,956 votes.

TMC candidate Arup Chakraborty was ahead of BJP candidate and sitting MP Subhas Sarkar in Bankura Lok Sabha constituency by 3,765 votes.

TMC candidate and party’s Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandopadhyay, was leading by 98 votes from the Kolkata North seat over his nearest BJP rival BJP rival Tapas Roy.

In Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, TMC candidate Kirti Azad was leading by 6,526 votes over his nearest BJP rival Dilip Ghosh.

In Kolkata’s south seat, TMC candidate Mala Roy was leading over her nearest rival of the CPI (M) Saira Shah Halim by a margin of 12,491 votes.

Counting of votes for 42 Lok Sabha constituencies began at 8 am.

Reader correspondent