Despite defections, Trinamool to hold fort in Bengal (3)

New Delhi, Jan 18 : Despite facing defections by the party leaders, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress would manage to retain its fort in West Bengal as it is predicted to win 158 out of the 294 seats in the Assembly polls scheduled later this year, while the BJP will emerge as the second largest party in the state, as per the IANS C-Voter Battle for the States survey.
The survey included 18,000 respondents across all the 294 assembly constituencies in the state.
The Trinamool, which swept the 2016 Assembly polls by winning 211 seats, is likely to get 158 seats in the elections scheduled later this year with the BJP emerging as the second largest party in the state.
The survey said that the BJP, which had won three seats in West Bengal in 2016, is expected to win 102 seats this time, a gain of 99 seats.
Meanwhile, the Congress and the Left parties will once again lose their ground in the politically sensitive state, as they are expected to win 30 seats as compared to 76 seats they won in the 2016 Assembly polls.
The Congress and the Left had announced an alliance to contest the Bengal Assembly polls in December last year.