00:00And in West Bengal, in Nandigram, BJP is leading in the postal ballot count at the moment.
00:06Early trends show that postal ballot counting is on.
00:11In Rejinagar, BJP is leading.
00:14So in Nandigram, Rejinagar and Rejinagar, BJP is leading in the early trends.
00:21But it is very, very early trends yet, viewers.
00:24We only have the postal ballot trends so far.
00:26Indrajeet Kundu is joining me on this story.
00:28Indra Nandigram and Rejinagar, both important.
00:33We've seen the kind of politicking that's happened.
00:35We've seen cases even coming all the way up to the Supreme Court with regard to candidates being allowed or
00:41not allowed to campaign.
00:43What are you picking up from the early trends and what is it likely to indicate about Bengal politics right
00:49now?
00:53Well, Anisha, as far as Bengal politics is concerned, it's always high voltage.
00:57So you can't even take a by-election lightly.
00:59Two seats up for grabs in this election, Rejinagar and Nandigram.
01:03We are here at the counting center in Nandigram, the counting center in Nandigram here.
01:09And what we can confirm to you, early trends show that the BJP candidate, Hasidani Rath, she's leading at this
01:15point in time.
01:16These are, of course, early trends.
01:18Postal ballot counting began at 8 o'clock this morning.
01:22Interestingly, even at Rejinagar, the BJP candidate, Sakharav Sarkar, he's leading there in Rejinagar.
01:28These are two seats which are very vital for the political trends in West Bengal.
01:33Given that we've seen regime change five months back in the state with the BJP winning by two-thirds majority,
01:40this will have some consequence on who occupies the opposition space.
01:45Will that be the Congress?
01:47Because here at Nandigram, it's not the Mamata Banerjee Trinamul Congress.
01:51Because the Trinamul Congress, Mamata Banerjee candidate had withdrawn from the race.
01:56So Mamata Banerjee then had lent her support to the Congress candidate, Milan Pradhan.
02:01And there was a lot of controversy surrounding the candidate because he was arrested just ahead of the elections.
02:06He's out on bail.
02:07He's contesting.
02:08At this point in time, we are told, he's inside the counting center as the counting process has begun.
02:13But early trends show that the BJP, the ruling BJP in West Bengal,
02:18they are ahead in both the seats at Rejinagar and in Nandigram as well.
02:23But these are very early trends.
02:24We'll have to wait and see.
02:26Nandigram, of course, is a stronghold of the chief minister, Shubhendra Adhikari.
02:30He had won the seat five months back along with Bhavanipur in Kolkata,
02:35where he actually decided to keep Bhavanipur,
02:38where he defeated the former chief minister, Mamata Banerjee,
02:41and relinquished the Nandigram seat, necessitating a bi-poll here.
02:46And Chandranath Roth, his former personal assistant who was gunned down,
02:51his mother, Hanshirani Roth, has been given the ticket.
02:54And she has contested this election here in Nandigram.
02:58In fact, the chief minister himself came to Nandigram and campaigned for Hanshirani Roth,
03:02for the BJP candidate.
03:04It's, in a sense, a prestige battle.
03:06A lot of people think it's a foregone conclusion that the BJP will win
03:10because it's considered to be Shubhendra Adhikari's stronghold.
03:14The margin would be something that will have to be looked into.
03:17The BJP and the chief minister himself has claimed that he wants to win Nandigram on a record margin.
03:23Will he be able to do that?
03:24Thank you very much for that perspective.
03:27Indrajit Kundu telling us all about the politics of Bengal
03:31and why Nandigram and Rejinagar are both going to be very important
03:36when it comes to public perception as well.
03:39We will be keeping a very close eye.
