Around 64.2 crore votes that were polled during the Lok Sabha elections between April 19 and June 1 will be counted today to decide whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP equals a record set by country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru or the Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc put a spanner in the saffron juggernaut.
By evening, the country is likely to have a clear picture of who would govern it for next five years as the fate of 8,360 candidates, including 797 women, in 542 seats will be sealed. In one seat, Surat, a BJP candidate was elected unopposed.
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Ahead of the counting of votes for Lok Sabha elections on June 4, Rajasthan minister Kirodi Lal Meena on Monday said he will quit his cabinet post if the BJP loses any of the seven seats under his responsibility.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given him a list of seven seats in eastern Rajasthan on which he worked hard.
The agriculture and rural development minister campaigned on seats in eastern Rajasthan including Dausa, Bharatpur, Dholpur, Karauli, Alwar, Tonk-Sawaimadhopur and Kota-Bundi.
-PTI
The BJP has set a target of 370 seats for itself and 400 seats for NDA.
Opposition has claimed that the INDIA alliance will win more than 295 seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently ahead in the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency, while defence minister Rajnath Singh is leading in Lucknow, as per the ongoing counting of postal ballots. In Amethi, Smriti Irani has taken an early lead, and Ravi Kishan is leading in Gorakhpur. Arun Govil, contesting from Meerut, is also in the lead at this stage.
BJP Lok Sabha Candidate from Basirhat, Rekha Patra says, "I am going to win. BJP is going to win and PM Modi will come to Basirhat. The future of Sandeshkhali is bright. BJP is leading in all seats. The environment has been peaceful here since morning. The Central forces are here, local police remain outside. Lotus has bloomed in Basirhat."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trailing in Varanasi by a margin of over 4,000 votes. Congress's Ajay Rai is leading.
Union Minister and BJP candidate Kiren Rijiju and his party’s sitting MP Tapir Gao are leading on both the Arunachal Lok Sabha seats. Union Minister Rijiju is leading on the Arunachal West seat against state Congress President Nabam Tuki by 14,062 votes. Sitting BJP MP Tapir Gao is leading on the Arunachal East seat by 2920 votes against his Congress opponent Bosiram Siram.
The BJP was leading in 14 Lok Sabha seats and the Shiv Sena (UBT) in 9 in Maharashtra, while the Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) were ahead in 7 seats each, as per the latest trends of counting underway for 48 constituencies in the state. The NCP (SP) was leading in 7 seats.
The NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, the AIMIM and an independent candidate were leading in 1 seat each.
So far, trends were available for 47 constituencies in the state.
Union minister Nitin Gadkari, who is contesting his third Lok Sabha polls from Nagpur, took a lead over Congress candidate Vikas Thakre.
The BJP was leading in nine of the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana, while the ruling Congress was ahead in four seats as per initial trends indicated by news channels, as the counting of votes progressed in the state on Tuesday. AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi was leading in Hyderabad LS constituency. The counting of votes began at 8 am in the state. The election to the 17 LS seats in the state was held in a single phase on May 13.
Former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar is leading over Congress's Divyanshu Budhiraja by margin of 10,766 votes in Karnal Lok Sabha seat.
Radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh was leading in Punjab's Khadoor Sahib Lok Sabha seat over the Congress' Kulbir Singh Zira in initial trends on Tuesday, according to the Election Commission. Amritpal was leading by a margin of 30,987 votes against Zira, a former MLA. Amritpal, the chief of the 'Waris Punjab De' outfit who is currently lodged in Assam's Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act, fought the elections as an Independent. The counting of votes for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab began at 8 am amid tight security.
Bhojpuri superstar Pawan Singh, who contested as an Independent candidate from Bihar's Karakat seat, was leading over his nearest rival Raja Ram Singh Kushwaha of CPI (ML) Liberation by 179 votes. Former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, the Rashtriya Lok Morcha candidate, was trailing. As per the EC, Singh has polled 4,752 votes, followed by 4,573 of Raja Ram Singh Kushwaha and 3,550 of Upendra Kushwaha.
Dharmendra Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav's cousin is leading by over 17,000 votes in Azamgarh.
Akshaya Yadav, Akhilesh's cousin who is son of the SP patriarch’s cousin Ram Gopal Yadav, who is a Rajya Sabha MP leading by over 22,000 votes in Firozabad.
Aditya Yadav, Akhilesh's cousin, son of Mulayam’s brother and Jaswantnagar MLA Shivpal Yadav leading by over 400 votes in Badaun.
Akhilesh Yadav who is son of Mulayam Singh Yadav leading by over 41,000 in Kannauj.
Dimple Yadav, daughter-in-law of Mulayam Singh Yadav and wife of Akhilesh is leading by over 46.000 votes in Mainpuri
The BJP was leading in all five Lok Sabha seats of Uttarakhand on Tuesday, according to the Election Commission trends. Ajay Bhatt is leading by 11,6296 votes in Nainital, Ajay Tamta by 56,292 votes in Almora, Anil Baluni by 30,355 votes in Garhwal (Pauri), Trivendra Singh Rawat by 20,101 votes in Haridwar and Mala Rajya Lakshmi Shah by 22,531 votes in Tehri Garhwal. Independent candidate in Tehri Garhwal, Boby Panwar, a poll debutante, emerged as the closest rival to the BJP relegating Jot Singh Gunsola of the Congress to the third position in the initial rounds of counting. Counting for the five seats in the state began at 8 am.
In Himachal Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading in all four Lok Sabha constituencies, as per the latest trends from the Election Commission. Kangana Ranaut, the BJP candidate from Mandi and a well-known actor, has secured a lead of 30,017 votes. Meanwhile, Anurag Thakur, the Union minister contesting for his fifth term from the Hamirpur constituency, is ahead by 71,838 votes, according to the poll panel's data. Anand Sharma, a former Union minister and the Congress candidate from the Kangra seat, is trailing by 1,11,047 votes. In the Shimla constituency, Suresh Kashyap, a former BJP state president and the current BJP MP, has a lead of 36,547 votes.
Nirmal Kumar Saha of the BJP leading by 1559 votes, While Yusuf Pathan of the TMC is trailing by 1559 votes followed by Adhir Ranjan chowdhury who is trailing by 4803.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has surpassed Sonia Gandhi's 2019 victory margin from the Rae Bareli constituency and is now leading by 2,27,535 votes against his nearest rival Dinesh Pratap Singh of the BJP.
Rahul Gandhi, who contested from Rae Bareli seat for the first time, was ahead of the BJP candidate since the beginning of the counting.(PTI)
Manipur is leaning towards the Congress with the grand old party leading in both the seats in the state. BJP is looking at a major dent in Bengal as it has only managed to secure lead in 12 seats so far. The politics around Sandeshkhali seems to have not worked out well for the BJP as the party is keeping a lead of 12 seats so far.
Sandeshkhali, which falls under the Basirhat Lok Sabha seat and had been the focal point of Bengal politics just ahead of Lok Sabha elections failed to get the necessary result for the BJP as the saffron party's pick Rekha Patra failed to secure the maximum votes. TMC veteran Haji Nurul Islam who was leading with a margin of over two lakh votes.
Nurul Islam has secured 4,84,836 votes with a lead of 2,41,545 over Patra, according to EC data so far.
Owaisi thanked the people of Hyderabad for his win and said, "People silently worked for stopping the spread of BJP in Telangana. The people of the country have made a decision. It seems that the BJP is not going to achieve the magic number of 272 seats. This is the result of people getting tired of BJP’s politics of hatred in the last 10 years."
The BJP suffered a setback in Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, with its tally dwindling by almost half compared to 2019, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi of Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) was on a roll, set to pocket 27 of the 48 seats.
A number of candidates who contested in the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal registered victories by massive margins.
Trinamool Congress general secretary and Diamond Harbour candidate Abhishek Banerjee topped the list of nominees winning the election with a massive margin of over 7 lakh votes. (PTI)
The BJP yielded ground to the Congress in Karnataka, as the ruling party boosted its Lok Sabha seats tally to nine on Tuesday, with the results being declared for polls held to 28 segments in the state. The BJP which sought to ride on the Modi factor won 17 seats -- down from 25 in 2019 Lok Sabha elections -- while its NDA partner, JD(S) won two constituencies. (PTI)