Sultan Singh. (Gopal Senapati)

The Trinamul candidate for Bally, Sultan Singh, reached the counting centre at Dumurjala stadium from his Salt Lake home with his daughter and two sons around 6am. By 6.30am, they were all seated inside the counting room.

Bally being a Left bastion, Singh was a bit tense. And the results of the first few rounds of counting showed it would be a neck and neck between the former IPS officer and the CPM’s Kanika Ganguly.

By the afternoon, however, Singh had secured a lead of more than 5,000 votes. And by the end of the day he clinched victory by more than 6,000 votes. “The counting was delayed because of a malfunctioning EVM. The machine could not be opened and it took some time to set it right,” said Singh.

He refused to leave the centre without the victory certificate and it took time coming. “The win has probably come as a surprise for them. So, they are finding it difficult to hand over the certificate,” Singh’s daughter laughed.

After the win, Singh said: “This is the first time in many years that Bally has seen free and fair polls.”

The other former IPS officer in the fray in Howrah, Haider Aziz Safwi, who contested from Uluberia East, reached the counting centre at CIPT college on National Highway 6 at 9.30am. He was accompanied by his two sons.

By 10am, Safwi was leading by 3,500 votes but he was too cautious “not to comment right now”. He finally defeated Mohan Mondal of the CPM by more than 19,000 votes.

The cellphone did not stop ringing through the day but Safwi seemed cool. “I am not tensed. Even if I lose I will take it in my stride,” he said.

Safwi, however, was confident of Mamata Banerjee’s victory. “There is no stopping her. Change is inevitable,” he said.