The Election Commission has banned all victory processions due to the Covid surge.

Mamata Banerjee is set to retain power in Bengal with a spectacular 200-plus seats, the DMK is heading for a big victory in Tamil Nadu, the BJP is retaining Assam and the LDF is keeping Kerala, reveal latest figures in the counting of votes in state.

Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress is leading in 219 of Bengal's 294 seats and the BJP looks set to finish below the 100-mark.

The Chief Minister's Trinamool and the BJP ran a bitter, no holds barred campaign that defied Covid safety rules as well as the poll code. Ms Banerjee was defeated by the BJP's Suvendhu Adhikari - her former close aide -- in Nandigram, which is the most-watched fight in Bengal.

In Assam, the BJP is leading in 77 of the 126 seats, far ahead of its nearest rival Congress, which campaigned hard to reclaim its one-time bastion.

In Tamil Nadu, the DMK is well ahead of the ruling AIADMK, which has an alliance with the BJP. MK Stalin's DMK and its allies are leading in 143 seats and the AIADMK, in 89.

In Kerala, the incumbent LDF is leading in 96 of the 140 seats and seems to be on its way to buck a 40-year tradition if the trend continues. The Congress-led UDF is leading in 43 seats.

In Puducherry, the N Rangaswamy's AINRC-led alliance - of which the BJP is a part - is leading in 14 of the 30 assembly seats while the Congress is ahead in 7.

Voting for these elections took place in March and April, just as India started reporting thousands of fresh coronavirus infections every day. On March 14, two weeks before the first phase, there were fewer than 25,000 new cases a day. On March 27 there were around 62,000 and, by April 29, there was well over 3.5 lakh per day. On Saturday, new cases reached a record daily high of 401,993, the biggest across the world.

Alongside the Covid spike, leaders of all political parties, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, led political rallies at which large crowds discarded safety rules on masks and social distancing.

Last week, the Madras High Court said the Election Commission "should probably be booked for murder" for not stopping rallies. Late Saturday, the Commission hit back and filed a complaint in the Supreme Court.

The Election Commission has banned all victory processions. The poll body has also said candidates will not be allowed inside counting centers without either a negative Covid report (no older than 48 hours) or confirmation that they'd received both their vaccine shots.

Source: NDTV