Kolkata, Jun 4 (PTI) Well on his way to represent the Dum Dum Lok Sabha seat for the fourth consecutive term in a row, veteran Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy led by nearly 65,000 votes over his nearest rival BJP's Silbhadra Dutta even as counting drew to its final phases.
Dum Dum, a prestigious seat in the northern fringes of Kolkata, witnessed a triangular contest owing to the presence of a formidable Left candidate in the poll fray, CPI (M)'s Sujan Chakraborty, who amassed over two lakh votes in his kitty.
While Roy received 4.76 lakh votes and counting till figures from the ECI last received, Dutta managed a little over 4.11 lakh votes.
At nearly 78 years of age, Saugata Roy is among the senior-most leaders of the Trinamool Congress and a long-time political aide of party chief Mamata Banerjee.
A three-time sitting MP from the Dum Dum parliamentary seat and once previously from Barrackpore as a Congress leader, the veteran politician has also remained a five-time legislator, initially as a Congress and subsequently as a TMC leader.
A retired professor of Physics, who also holds a law degree, Roy has remained a vocal member of the parties he represented, both on the floors of the Parliament and in the state assembly. PTI SMY SBN SBN