The Left Front - the longest serving Communist-led government in a democratic set-up headed for a rout.
West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee tendered his resignation to Government MK Narayanan at 1.15pm on Friday. He lost his seat and is only the second chief minister in Bengal's history to lose the assembly seat. Prafulla Sen, the third chief minister of Bengal, was the first to lose.
As the state was poised to get its first woman chief minister in Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee after about 64 years after independence, the defeat of the Left Front spanned almost the entire geographical map of West Bengal.
Its candidates were losing even in erstwhile red citadels like Burdwan, Bankura and Purulia districts and in seats where the coalition had never been defeated since coming to power in 1977.
In trends for 266 seats in the 294-member assembly, the Trinamool-led alliance was ahead in over 200 seats.
The Left front was ahead in only 71 seats, with CPM leading in 49, Communist Party of India in four, Forward Bloc (12) and Revolutionary Socialist Party (6).
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was ahead in two seats, others in seven and an independent in one.
Nine other ministers, including Nirupam Sen (industries) and Asim Dadgupta (finance) were trailing. Only Land and Revenue Minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah was leading.
Among the Trinamool heavyweights, leader of the opposition in the outgoing assembly Partha Chatterjee and Kolkata Mayor Sovan Chatterjee were in the lead.
Other Trinamool nominees were leading too -- like FICCI secretary general and eminent economist Amit Mitra was ahead of incumbent finance minister Asim Dasgupta in Khardah, singer Anup Ghoshal was ahead in Uttarpara, while theatre personality Bratya Basu and film actress
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