New Delhi, May 24 -- The counting of votes for the Falta assembly constituency repoll in West Bengal began at 8 am on Sunday under tight security, with BJP candidate Debangshu Panda surging ahead with a commanding lead after the very first of 21 counting rounds. The repoll, ordered after serious irregularities marred the original 29 April polling, has drawn intense scrutiny from across the political spectrum.

Debangshu Panda was leading by a massive margin of more than 76,000 votes over his nearest CPI(M) rival after 16 rounds of counting. Only 5 more rounds pending before final result.

After 15 rounds of counting, Debangshu Panda bagged 1,03,089 votes, leading by 69,673 votes over CPI(M) candidate Sambhu Nath Kurmi.

Debangshu Panda ba...