The TMC on Tuesday hailed the trends that reflected that the party was racing ahead of its rivals and said the people have voted against the anti-Bengali forces

"The results are a reflection of people's faith in the pro-people policies of the TMC government led by our supremo Mamata Banerjee. The people through this decisive mandate against the BJP have defeated the anti-Bengal forces. The results have also proved that the exit polls were a farce by the pro-BJP media," TMC spokesperson Santanu Sen told PTI

The counting of votes for 42 Lok Sabha constituencies began at 8 am

The TMC raced ahead of its rivals, leading in 31 seats after several rounds of counting, while the BJP led in 10, and Congress in one, even as it took an insurmountable lead in a number of seats, according to the Election Commission website

If TMC can hold on to this tally till evening, the party is all set for second best performance in the state after 2014 when it had won 34 seats

Till 1 pm, the party bagged 47 per cent votes, up from 43 per cent in 2019

In the last Lok Sabha polls, the TMC had won 22 seats, whereas the BJP had won 18, and the Congress had bagged two

Despite its pitch campaign with top central BJP leaders leading the charge, the party's tally is all set to decline by eight seats and a vote share of three per cent. In 2019, it had bagged 40 per cent of the total votes polled

The CPI (M) seems to be failing to open its account from the state just like in 2019, as it was not leading in any of the 42 seats