West Bengal Assembly election results | Over 20 TMC Ministers trail as BJP heads towards historic win

More than 20 Ministers from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) were trailing on Monday as the trends of the West Bengal Assembly election results suggested a massive BJP wave.

At least 23 Ministers were trailing across constituencies, in what comes as a major setback for the TMC, which ruled for three terms.

Among the prominent leaders who were trailing are outgoing Education Minister Bratya Basu by 10,521 votes, Manas Ranjan Bhunia by around 4,450 votes, Women and Child Development Minister Shashi Panja by nearly 5,000 votes, and Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya by 3,878 votes.

In the TMC stronghold of Singur, BJP candidate Arup Kumar Das was leading by 4,924 votes over the TMC's Becharam Manna.

Furthermore, Minister Snehasis Chakraborty was trailing by around 6,500 votes, while several other Ministers, including Sujit Bose, Pulak Roy, Sabina Yasmin, Srikanta Mahato and Birbaha Hansda, were also behind their nearest rivals in the early rounds.

This is a massive blow for the TMC as the Mamata Banerjee-led government had relied heavily on its welfare outreach and strong local leadership network. Most of the trailing leaders are important faces at the grassroots level.

Party leaders, however, cautioned that the trends were based on early rounds of counting and could change as more votes are tallied through the day.

Officials of the Election Commission maintained that clearer trends would emerge only after multiple rounds of counting are completed.