Will the BJP led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi return to power with a thumping majority as predicted by most exit polls? Or will the INDIA bloc of opposition parties steal a march over the NDA?
The counting of votes cast for all 543 seats across 28 states and 8 UTs is underway. Early trends have the BJP-led NDA leading in over 200 seats and the Opposition INDIA alliance in over 170.
LIVE | Lok Sabha elections 2024 results:
11.55 am: Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress is trailing behind TMC’s Yusuf Pathan in Baharampur in West Bengal, one of the two Lok Sabha seats in the state won by the Congress in 2019. A cricketer turned politician, Pathan is making his electoral debut in Baharampur this general election. According to ECI trends, Pathan is ahead of Chowdhury by 3,387 votes.
11.50 am: Congress’s Kanhaiya Kumar, INDIA bloc candidate for North East Delhi Lok Sabha seat, is trailing by over 40,000 votes. Sitting BJP MP Manoj Tiwari is in the lead.
The constituency was among the worst-affected during the 2020 communal riots. Read Risha Chitlangia’s report on Kanhaiya’s campaign.
11.45 am: Early trends by the ECI show the Samajwadi Party’s R.K. Chaudhary ahead in Mohanlalganj, and BJP’s Lallu Singh trailing in Faizabad. Similarly, sitting BJP legislator from Kushi Nagar Vijay Kumar Dubey is in the lead, as is SP’s Mohibbullah in Rampur. In Amethi, early trends show K.L. Sharma of the Congress ahead of Union minister Smriti Irani, while actor Hema Malini is in the lead in Mathura.
11.40 am: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is leading in his sitting seat in Kerala’s Wayanad by 80,203 votes against his opponent, CPI’s Annie Raja.
Rahul, who contested from Wayanad for the first time in 2019, got a thumping majority of 431,770 votes over his nearest rival P.P. Suneer of the CPI.
11.30 am: Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh, considered the bastion of Kamal Nath, is witnessing a fierce contest with the former chief minister’s son Nakul Nath trailing Bunty Vivek Sahu of the BJP by about 26,000 votes, according to the Election Commission of India.
11.15 am: ThePrint Editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta writes about how the Congress reaching even 90 would mean it holds the BJP below the 272 mark. And how it will ruffle the ruling party.
11.00 am: Uttar Pradesh is witnessing a neck and neck contest between the INDIA bloc and the BJP-led NDA with the former ahead in 40 and the latter in 39 seats, according to early trends by CNN News18.
10.45 am: Jailed Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh, who is contesting as an Independent, is leading in Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib parliamentary constituency. He is currently incarcerated in the Dibrugarh jail in Assam.
Sarabjit Singh Khalsa, contesting as an Independent from Faridkot in Punjab, is in the lead. Sarabjit — son of Beant Singh, one of the two assassins of Indira Gandhi — had made the Bargari desecration case his primary campaign plank. Read Chitleen K Sethi’s story.
(Inputs by Chitleen Sethi)
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10.25 am: Early trends show former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav leading in Kannauj by more than 36,000 votes. Similarly, Arun Govil of the BJP is ahead in Meerut, Dimple Yadav of the SP in Mainpuri and actor Hema Malini in Mathura.
(Inputs by Krishan Murari)
10.05 am: The BJP-led NDA is leading in 291 seats and the INDIA bloc in 216 seats — News18
10.00 am: BJP’s Smriti Irani is trailing in Amethi. Congress’s Kishori Lal is ahead by 5,337 votes, shows ECI website.
In 2019, the Union minister had defeated senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from his traditional seat by a margin of 55,120 votes. This time, though, Gandhis are absent in Rae Bareli this time around, but rumblings within BJP are affecting Smriti Irani’s prospects. Read Shikha Salaria’s ground report.
9.50 am: Sensex down by around 2,000 points and Nifty down around 600 points within the first hour of trading on counting day.
9.45 am: In Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trailing behind Congress leader and Uttar Pradesh party president Ajay Rai, according to early trends released by the Election Commission of India (ECI). Rai is ahead by 6,223 votes.
(Inputs by Neelam Pandey)
9.30 am: Early trends show NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule, the incumbent MP from Baramati, trailing Sunetra Pawar of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in what has been touted as the most highly anticipated electoral contest in Maharashtra this general election. — News18
9.20 am: Rekha Patra, the first woman to file a complaint in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali sexual assault firestorm, was picked by the BJP for Basirhat Lok Sabha seat, where she faces popular TMC leader and former MP Haji Nurul Islam. Read Sagrika Kissu’s story on how she’s not letting her political inexperience faze her. Her agenda: women’s respect and safety.
9.15 am: Firebrand Trinamool Congress leader Mahua Moitra is trailing in Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat, while CPI(M) West Bengal state secretary Md Salim is leading in Murshidabad. Also in the lead is Rekha Patra of the BJP in Basirhat.
(Inputs by Sreyashi Dey)
9.00 am: In Haryana, initial trends show BJP candidates Manohar Lal Khattar in Karnal, Ashok Tanwar in Sirsa, Naveen Jindal in Kurukshetra, and Arvind Sharma in Rohtak are trailing.
(Inputs by Sushil Manav)
8.45 am: Early trends have the BJP-led NDA leading in 291 seats, and the INDIA bloc in 161 — News18
8.30 am: Before surrendering at Tihar Sunday, the last day of his interim bail, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had warned INDIA bloc parties to stay vigilant on counting day. He said that it was being suggested that the EVMs were tampered with, and therefore, the parties should get the numbers matched with VVPAT slips. “There is no point crying hoarse later. It has to be done on counting day, so that EVM tampering can be prevented or exposed,” he said.
8.20 am: From a master strategist to star campaigner — Amit Shah has transformed into a ‘bada neta‘, drawing crowds nationwide. Party leaders and political analysts say that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the BJP’s campaign figurehead, Shah “sets its tone”. Read Neelam Pandey’s story on how Shah’s understanding of Indian politics and its essence sets him apart.
8.10 am: The winner for Surat Lok Sabha constituency was declared on 22 April itself, when the BJP’s Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed.
8.00 am: Counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 begins.
7.45 am: With just hours left for counting, security has been heightened at multiple locations across the country with police and paramilitary forces conducting intensive patrolling. — ANI
7.30 am: Most exit polls have predicted a thumping majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and, despite a vigorous campaign, the Congress-led INDIA bloc is projected to finish a distant second. Read ThePrint’s breakdown of five exit polls.
7.15 am: Watch ThePrint team LIVE as it decodes the Lok Sabha Election 2024 results.
7.00 am: ThePrint Editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta lists key takeaways from what has been the longest general election campaign in our history. Read his 10 hot takes here.
Also Read: Youth voted more for INDIA bloc than older people, farmers preferred NDA — Axis My India exit poll