Kolkata, June 7 (IANS): The unpaid dearness allowance (DA), at par with the Central government employees, and the accrued arrears seem to have impacted the popularity of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress among the state government employees as is evident from the votes cast through postal ballots in the state.

Although the BJP won 12 Lok Sabha seats, they were ahead in 16, if figures of only postal ballots, where a large section of the voters are state government employees, are considered.

Another interesting phenomenon that has surfaced from the postal ballots, as per the data available with the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), is that the BJP candidates were defeated in some constituencies where the postal ballots gave them substantial leads. Similarly, there were constituencies where Trinamool Congress candidates were defeated but were ahead as per postal ballot figures.

The BJP was ahead in postal ballots from Cooch Behar, Raiganj, Balurghat, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar, Maladaha-Uttar, and Maladaha-Dakshin in north Bengal and Ranaghat, Purulia, Murshidabad, Medinipur, Krishnanagar, Bangaon, Tamluk, and Baharampur in south Bengal, and Trinamool in the remaining 26 constituencies. There was no constituency where any Congress-Left Front alliance candidate was ahead in postal ballots.