Though the rival groups exuded confidence of winning the recently concluded Bengal Assembly elections internal reports being prepared by some of the Trinamool Congress district committees tend to put the State ruling outfit ahead of the Congress-left alliance. According to sources internal reports being prepared by the district committees of Hooghly, North 24 Parganas, East Midnapore and Howrah put the ruling party ahead by a few notches. For instance a report being sent by the Hooghly district committee to the Trinamool State committee says that the party may get at least 16 out of 18 seats. It is another matter that the left opposition puts the figure at 6:18 --- by conservative assessment --- in favour of the Trinamool.
According to both the Congress and the left leadership the Alliance may get Pandua, Serampore, Champdani, Chandernagore, Uttarpara and Saptagram seats. On the other hand Trinamool MP Suvendu Adhikary and party candidate for Nandigram Assembly seat says his party will win all the 16 seats from the district. “Wait for May 19 and you will see Bengal once again painted in Trinamool colours. Our district-wise reports only confirm this. Insofar as East Midnapore is concerned we are set to win all the 16 seats” he says. However, the local district leadership of the CPI(M) says they will “definitely win four seats of Panshkura West, Egra, South Contai and Haldia and will give “stiff resistance at Ramnagar.” At Howrah district Trinamool president Arup Roy says they will win the 16 seats. “We will not only win all the seats but make it difficult to save their (Congress-left) deposits,” he says adding “the left leaders cried hoarse about their winning but privately they are also telling that they had done so to encourage their workers.”
However Howrah CPI(M) leaders say they will win at least eight seats from the district including Howrah North, Central, Bally, Amta and Udaynarayanpur. “There is a good chance of winning Sankrail also because the voters who could not vote during the panchayat and civic elections turned out in great numbers and voted for us.
Similarly the Trinamool North 24 Parganas leadership is projecting hands-down victory. “We will win at least 28 out of 33 seats,” says JP Mullick the district TMC president however here also the left says they will win at least 12 seats “if not more.” Says, Trinamool general secretary Partho Chatterjee, “the huge turnout during the elections only proves that the people have voted for Mamata Banerjee.’ On the other hand CPI(M)’s Suryakanta Mishra says “let May 19 come and everything will be clear. We have already won the elections. The question now is about the margin.” His words are echoed by Congress’ Manas Bhunia. He says “the Congress thanks the Election Commission for holding a free and fare election. The people have been able to vote and the mandate is going in favour of the Alliance.” When asked as to how the Alliance would win when it is not sure of getting the majority number of seats in most districts a senior Congress says “out of 76 seats in North Bengal we will win 65. Now out of the 218 seats the Trinamool will have to win more than 65 percent seats in South Bengal which not quite possible considering the fact that they have to contend with strong left bastions in Burdwan and Nadia which jointly have 35 seats and stronger anti-establishment wave in the urban and semi-urban areas.”