Lok Sabha 2024 election results highlights: Congress says decision on new partners tomorrow

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has won the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat by a margin of over 4 lakh votes. Rae Bareli and Amethi have long been bastions of the Nehru-Gandhi family, with the Congress leading BJP’s Smriti Irani also from the latter.

With the BJP unlikely to reach the majority mark on its own, talks have begun with TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu getting calls from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, though results are still coming in. The Opposition INDIA bloc, too, will look to make further gains based on its stellar show.

NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) took to X asking the district administration of Beed, and the police to ensure law and order in the district. Pawar's tweet came after reports of the situation turning tense as the fight between his NCP (SCP) candidate Bajrang Sonawane and BJP's Pankaja Munde went down to the wire.

After a delay in counting and amidst growing tension between both sides, Sharad Pawar's candidate Bajrang Sonawane was declared winner by a margin of 3,100 votes against Pankaja Munde in the Beed Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra.

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) president Uddhav Thackeray has said that suspecting foul play in the election results of Mumbai north west constituency counting.

"We are suspecting foul play in Mumbai north west constituency counting. We will challenge the result in court," he said. After a sea saw battle Ravindra Waikar of Shivsena (Shinde) was declared elected from the Mumbai North West Seat.

Amol Kirtikar (SS-Uddhav) who was initially declared winner ended up polling 4,52,596 votes while Waikar got 4,52,644 votes after revalidation.

'Narpathum namathey, nadum namathey,' a popular Tamil poll slogan of ruling DMK, which means 'all the 40 constituencies are ours and the nation as well,' is blossoming into a reality with the Dravidian party and its allies set for a spectacular win in all of Tamil Nadu's 39 segments and in the lone Puducherry seat.

Candidates belonging to the DMK and its allies including star nominee Kanimozhi won by huge margins in constituencies where results have been declared and going by the unassailable margins, all other candidates of the Dravidian party and allies Congress, CPI, CPI(M), VCK, MDMK and IUML are all sure to emerge victorious including Dayanidhi Maran (Central Chennai) and T R Baalu (Sriperumbudur).

Even in the constituencies of Coimbatore and Dharmapuri, where BJP and PMK (Saffron party's ally) were confident of a win fell into the DMK's kitty. In Puducherry, where the BJP had hopes of winning has gone the Congress way with senior leader VE Vaithilingam set to win by a big margin.

A key takeaway from the Lok Sabha polls is the continuing popularity of the ruling DMK, led by Stalin and the perfect cohesion at the ground level among alliance partners. Another outcome is the significant contribution of a split in the anti-DMK votes in the victory of candidates belonging to the DMK combine in a number of constituencies.

Four Congress turncoats, who recently joined the BJP in Himachal Pradesh, on Tuesday lost the by-elections from their respective assembly segments, the Election Commission figures showed.

With victory in four assembly segments, the strength of Congress MLAs has gone up to 38 in the house with an effective strength of 65. The result ensures that there is no immediate threat to the Congress government in the state for now.

The Congress won Sujanpur, Gagret, Kutlehar and Lahaul and Spiti assembly seats, while the BJP won from Dharamshala and Barsar, according to the EC.

BJP's Rajinder Rana was defeated by his old rival Ranjit Singh of Congress by a margin of 2,440 votes in the Sujanpur assembly by-election.

Rana is a Congress turncoat who had defeated former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal in the 2017 assembly polls and was the main target of Sukhu in the by-elections. While Rana had recently switched to the BJP, Singh, a retired captain, joined the Congress after Rana was given a BJP ticket for the Sujanpur bypoll.

Singh polled 29,529 votes against Rana's 27,089 votes, according to EC's website.

In a triangular contest in the Lahaul and Spiti by-election, Congress candidate Anuradha Rana defeated her nearest rival and Independent candidate Ram Lal Markanda by a margin of 1,960 votes.

Anuradha Rana, who is the first woman to have contested elections from Lahaul and Spiti in 52 years, became the second woman ever to win from the assembly segment.

Former Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar, ex-JMM leader Sita Soren and former Congress party MP Preneet Kaur joined the list of those who had defected to the saffron party but could not succeed.

Tanwar, who had joined the BJP earlier this year, lost the election to Congress' Kumari Selja from Sirsa by a margin of over 2.68 lakh votes.

Tanwar had quit the Congress in 2019 and joined the AAP in 2022. In between, the former Lok Sabha MP had floated his party and even joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for a brief period.

Sita Soren, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLA who had joined BJP in March this year, lost the election from Dumka by a margin of over 22,000 votes. She is the sister-in-law of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren.

Former Union minister Preneet Kaur, who had joined the BJP this year, lost the elections from Patiala, a constituency from where she had won four times earlier. She is the wife of Congress heavyweight Captain Amarinder Singh.

Kaur finished at the third spot and lost by a margin of around 16,000 votes.

Ravneet Bittu, who won as Congress candidate in 2019 and switched to the BJP in March, could not retain his Ludhiana seat. He lost to Congress' Amrinder Singh Raja by over 20,000 votes.

Sushil Rinku, who was Aam Aadmi Party's lone MP in the outgoing Lok Sabha, also joined the BJP ahead of elections but could not retain his Jalandhar seat. He lost to Congess' Charanjit Singh Channi, the former Punjab chief minister.

After Congress candidate was declared defeated by a mere 110 votes by EC, alliance partners Congress and SP, demanded recounting of votes in Uttar Pradesh's Bansgaon seat.

The outcome of the Lok Sabha polls will be crucial in determining the future of the BJP's dominance in Uttar Pradesh, where the INDIA bloc has enacted a massive upset by pushing ahead.

The NDA’s dismal performance in Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 members to the 543-member Lok Sabha, is a stark contrast to its previous successes in the 2014 and 2019 elections. The BJP and its ally Apna Dal won 64 out of 80 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while the Samajwadi Party won just five seats and the Congress managed one seat.

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge have said a decision on reaching out to the Telugu Desam Party and the Janata Dal United, both of which have been former allies of the party, will be taken by the opposition alliance at a meeting tomorrow.

When Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge was asked about whether they would form a government, he hinted at new partners. “We cannot say anything until we speak to our alliance partners... and the new partners that could join us about how we could work together and get a majority, we will see. If I reveal all our strategies now, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will become wary ('hoshiyar ho jayenge'),” said Kharge.

The BJP has failed to attain a majority on its own and is leading in 239 constituencies. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP is at 16 and the JDU is at 12. The TDP-BJP alliance was formed just before the elections. Prior to this the TDP was part of the United Progressive Alliance in 2019.

The youngest MP candidate in the General Elections 2024, Sanjana Jatav won from Bharatpur seat in Rajasthan for Congress. She defeated BJP's Ramswaroop Koli.

Suspended Hassan JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, who is facing charges of sexually abusing several women, lost the Lok Sabha elections to Shreyas M Patel of the Congress by 42,549 votes on Tuesday.

Patel secured 6,72,988 votes and Revanna 6,30,339.

The 33-year-old Revanna, who is the grandson of former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda, was the only one from JD(S) to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections on April 26, a huge cache of explicit videos went viral showing women being sexually assaulted, allegedly by Prajwal.

Soon after the polling, Prajwal left the country and was holed up in Germany for over a month.

The 31-year-old Shreyas Patel had contested against H D Revanna in Holenarasipura in the assembly polls last year, but lost by 3,152 votes.

BJP candidate Dilip Ghosh, the previous West Bengal state president of the saffron party, was defeated in Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha constituency by a margin of 1,37,981 votes, the Election Commission said on Tuesday.

He was defeated by Kirti Azad, the cricketer-turned-candidate of the Trinamool Congress.

Ghosh, accustomed to facing challenges, was tasked with retaining a seat won narrowly by the BJP's S S Ahluwalia by about 3,000 votes in the last elections.

He was, however, defeated by 1,37,981 votes this time around, according to the EC data.

Ghosh, who has a history of overcoming obstacles, rose to become the BJP's West Bengal state president just nine months after joining the party and secured a legislative assembly seat on his first attempt by defeating Congress veteran Gyan Singh Sohanpal in Kharagpur Sadar.

Similarly, he succeeded in becoming an MP in his debut attempt in 2019.

Under Ghosh's leadership in the state, the BJP surged from two seats to 18 out of 42 constituencies in Bengal in 2019, establishing the saffron party as a major challenger to the ruling Trinamool Congress.

However, Ghosh's shift from the Medinipur constituency, along with his removal from the position of the party's national vice-president, had transformed the Bardhaman-Durgapur contest into a pivotal test of his reputation.

DMK leader and former Union Minister A Raja won from the Nilgiris Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu, defeating Central Minister L Murugan by a margin of 2,40,585 votes, according to the Election Commission.

Raja, who established a clear lead since the counting of votes was taken up in the morning, secured 4,73,212 votes while Murugan polled 2,32,627 votes. AIADMK's D Logesh Tamilselvan finished third, obtaining 2,20,230 votes.

In Dharmapuri constituency, Sowmiya Anbumani of PMK, an ally of the BJP, lost by a margin of 21,300 votes to DMK candidate A Mani, who garnered 4,32,667 votes.

DMK's S Murasoli defeated DMDK candidate P Sivanesan in Thanjavur by securing 5,02,245 votes, about 3,19,583 votes more than his rival.

Following the YSR Congress’s defeat in the assembly polls, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday tendered his resignation to Governor S Abdul Nazeer, official sources told PTI.

Except one minister, all the cabinet colleagues of Jagan are trailing in the polls.

Speaker Thammineni Sitaram also lost the poll to his TDP rival K Ravi Kumar in Amadalavalas assembly segment.

Jagan is likely to continue as caretaker CM until the new government takes over in the state, sources added.

Congress's Kishori Lal Sharma won the Amethi Lok Sabha seat defeating union minister and BJP candidate Smriti Irani by a margin of 167196 votes. As per the Election Commission's data, Lal polled 5,39,228 votes compared to Irani's 3,72,032. His vote share is at 54.99 per cent while it is 37.94 per cent for Irani.

Rahul Gandhi pointed out that the Congress has given a clear vision to the country—a vision that is “pro-poor and pro-production”. He said: I would like to admit that the task of saving this Constitution has been accomplished by the poorest people of this country, by the farmers, Dalits and Adivasis.

It was at a time when many people had chosen to remain silent.

He also took a dig at the sinking Adani Group shares in the stock market after the results. “It shows that the people directly link Adani-ji with Narendra Modi-ji. The stock market realises that if Modi sinks, Adani sinks too. Means there is a direct relationship, a relationship of corruption,” Rahul Gandhi said.

Samajwadi Party candidate Dimple Yadav won the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 221,639 votes, defeating her nearest rival, BJP's Jaiveer Singh. Dimple Yadav received 598,526 votes, while Singh garnered 376,887 votes. BSP candidate Shiv Prasad Yadav secured 66,814 votes.

In the 2019 general elections, Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav won the seat by a margin of 94,389 votes.

Following Mulayam Singh Yadav's death, Dimple Yadav won the seat in the 2022 by-election by a margin of 288,000 votes, defeating BJP's Raghuraj Shakya. The seat has been held by the Samajwadi Party since 1996, marked by a series of electoral victories.

Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the people of Bengal for delivering a resounding victory to the party in the Lok Sabha election, defying all exit poll predictions. She called for the resignation of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, reaffirming her unwavering support for the INDIA bloc parties.

Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday won from Diamond Harbour constituency by a margin of 7.10 lakh votes, the ECI said.

Banerjee, the sitting MP, secured 10.48 lakh votes, while his nearest rival Abhijit Das of the BJP bagged 3.37 lakh votes.

Congress candidate Rakibul Hussain has taken an unassailable lead of over 9.23 lakh votes over AIUDF supremo Badruddin Ajmal in Dhubri Lok Sabha seat in Assam, the Election Commission said.

Hussain secured 1,34,9868 votes, while Ajmal, the three-term sitting MP, got 4,26,839 votes. Zabed Islam got 4,08,056 votes.

The INDIA bloc will meet and decide on Wednesday whether to approach former partners such as the JD(U) and the TDP to attempt government formation at the Centre, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said.

"We are going to have a meeting with our partners tomorrow. These questions will be raised and answered there," Gandhi told a press conference in Delhi when asked if the Congress and its allies will approach parties that are part of the NDA to try and form a government.

He was addressing the press conference with senior Congress leaders as the Lok Sabha poll results and trends showed the BJP was set to become the single-largest party but would fall short of the magic figure of 272.

"We won't say anything without asking the opinion of our allies. Our alliance will decide tomorrow and whatever they decide we will act on that," he said.

He also said the general elections were a fight to save the Constitution. "India's poorest and backward stood up to save the Constitution."

"Administration has suddenly declared Congress candidate from Bansgaon Sadal Prasad defeated by 110 votes. This is serious. INDIA alliance is vigilant and alert and won't allow any rigging to happen."

According to later reports, after protests from Congress and INDIA alliance, recounting was started.

Congress leaders have met chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar and other election commissioners and raised the issue of alleged slow counting of votes, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The delegation including Abhishek Singhvi and Salman Khurshid demanded that the poll body provide real-time figures on its website after every round of counting in all the constituencies.

"We only want updating of results on the election website after different rounds of counting. But, we have noticed that the process of counting after 2.30 pm has slowed down, especially in Uttar Pradesh," Singhvi told PTI. He said the Congress delegation has pointed this slowdown to the Election Commission.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won his Lok Sabha seat from Varanasi by a margin of just about 1.52 lakh votes, in high contrast to his 2019 victory by over 5.22 lakh votes and 2014 margin of 3.71 lakh votes. True to expectations, however, his deputy and Union home minister Amit Shah has won Gandhinagar by well over 7 lakh votes.

The ruling BJP is leading in 24 of 25 seats in Gujarat, while in Banaskantha, the Congress' Geniben Thakor has gained a comfortable lead over her BJP rival Rekha Chaudhari.

Thakor is leading by 33,000 votes, as per the latest update by the Election Commission of India. Among BJP heavyweights, Union home minister Amit Shah was leading by a massive margin of nearly 7.12 lakh votes. Two other Union ministers, Mansukh Mandaviya and Parshottam Rupala, are leading by a margin of over 3.80 lakh votes and 4.65 lakh votes, respectively. State BJP president C.R. Paatil was leading by a margin of over 6.78 lakh votes.

Notably, the BJP had swept Gujarat, the home state of PM Modi and Shah, in the 2014 and 2019 general elections by winning all 26 seats.

This time, the BJP had won the Surat Lok Sabha constituency unopposed and without a single vote being cast, as the nomination of the Congress candidate was rejected owing to irregularities in the signatures of backers, while all other candidates withdrew from the fray.

Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and Sharadchandra Pawar stand tall today. They have shown they are the undisputed leaders and theirs are the 'real' Shiv Sena and the 'real' Nationalist Congress Party.

Uddhav Thackeray is leading in 10 Maharashtra seats and Pawar's NCP in seven. Their breakaway factions — Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP — are leading in five and one, respectively.

Overall, INDIA is ahead in 29 seats and the BJP on 18 at 3.00 pm, with the Congress leading in 11, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena in 10, and Sharad Pawar's NCP in eight. The NDA's 18 are split into the BJP with 11, Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena with six, and Ajit Pawar's NCP with one.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance saw Shiv Sena (UBT) competing in 21 constituencies, Congress in 17, and NCP (Sharad Pawar) in 10.

In 2019, the BJP and the Shiv Sena were in an alliance. Together, they won 41 of 48 seats. The NCP won four seats and the Congress one.

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls this time, Maharashtra witnessed contests between the split Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party factions — Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (SHS UBT) and Shiv Sena Eknath Shinde faction (SHS); NCP Sharad Pawar faction (NCP SP) and NCP Ajit Pawar group.

- Ashlin Mathew

The BJP's hope to make its strongest political statement from the Sandeshkhali-inclusive Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency looks to have been dashed to the ground as its candidate Rekha Patra was outsmarted by TMC veteran Haji Nurul Islam, leading by nearly 2 lakh votes.

The alleged sexual atrocities on local women, and land-grab in Sandeshkhali, one of the seven assembly segments of Basirhat, seem to have failed to deliver the BJP the coveted win from the seat.

"I was confident of a win. Whatever was spoken about Sandeshkhali was a lie and people never believed them. The videotapes proved that BJP's hand was behind it... It was a dirty conspiracy by the BJP and people gave them a befitting reply," Islam told PTI.

The people of Amethi have chosen. They have decided they would rather have a Gandhi loyalist representing them than the BJP’s Smriti Irani.

Gandhi family loyalist Kishori Lal Sharma, who is contesting his first election, is leading Irani by more than 71,000 votes in Amethi.

Speaking to NH ahead of voting day, Sharma had said he had been associated with the Amethi seat since 1983, when he began working with former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on a youth programme.

He had then insisted that his personal connection on the ground would help him win the Amethi seat. “I have worked here for 40 years. Won’t I have a deep connection with the people here? People here consider me as their family. I’m one of them,” said Sharma.

He had reiterated that the election this time was quite different from the general elections of 2019. He said Amethi had been a Congress bastion and would continue to be so as the people realised that they made a mistake in 2019.

- Ashlin Mathew

In a turn of the tide, the Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh is leading both in the Assembly election and the general election, months after TDP supremo N. Chandrababu Naidu's arrest in an alleged corruption case. Ironically, Naidu is now is likely to emerge as kingmaker at the national level.

According to latest updates, TDP was leading on 16 seats, YSRCP on 4, BJP 3 and Pawan Kalyan’s JNP on 2. Naidu was on course to lead his party towards a landslide victory, five years after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of a much younger Jagan Mohan Reddy. In the outgoing House, TDP has 23 members.

Of the 175 seats in the Assembly, the TDP was leading in 99, its ally Jana Sena in 15, BJP five, taking the NDA total to 119 seats as compared to total decimation for Jagan Reddy's YSR Congress party, which as of now is bagging only 15 seats.

Naidu was part of the NDA government between 2014 and 2019 and then left the NDA before 2019 Lok Sabha polls and joined the Congress-led UPA alliance to lose both the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. Soon after the loss, he distanced himself from the Congress and became part of the NDA in March 2024.

He himself is leading in the Kuppam Assembly segment over his YSRCP rival K.R.J. Bharat, and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is leading in the Pulivendula Assembly segment over his TDP rival Ravi.

- Ashlin Mathew

Counting trends show the BJP is trailing in Faizabad constituency, where the Ram Mandir is located in the city of Ayodhya, in what was formerly known as Faizabad district. The district was officially renamed Ayodhya in 2018, but the Lok Sabha seat is still called Faizabad.

More than five hours after counting began, the BJP's Lallu Singh was trailing his Samajwadi Party rival Awadhesh Prasad by around 10,000 votes.

In a thrilling race, Congress-led UDF has dealt a blow to the CPI-M- led LDF and the BJP has been able to open an account in Kerala’s Thrissur. The UDF is leading with 18 seats, LDF continues at 1 seat and BJP gets one too.

In what can be described as a nail-biting counting bout, Shashi Tharoor has finally begun to lead in Thiruvanathapuram with 14,000 votes after trailing behind BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrashekar for the first half of the day. He is the incumbent MP and when he wins, he would have become the MP for the fourth time.

As expected, Rahul Gandhi is leading in Wayanad with a margin of 3.34 lakh votes. He is ahead of both CPI’s Annie Raja and BJP’s K. Surendran by over 3 lakh votes. He is ahead in Raebareli by 2.38 lakh votes as well.

BJP’s actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi is en route to a historic win in the Lok Sabha elections. According to Election Commission data, Gopi is leading by over 43,000 votes in Thrissur constituency. Known for his police roles in films, he has so far polled 28.19 per cent of votes – a massive leap from the 11.15 per cent scored by K.P. Sreeshan for BJP in 2014. In 2019, T.N. Prathapan of the Congress won the election with 39.83 per cent of votes. Gopi was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by BJP in 2016.

When BJP made its electoral debut in Thrissur in 1989, its vote share stood at a meagre 5.35 per cent like elsewhere in the state.

AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal too is winning from Alappuzha and has now a lead of 57,000 votes over BJP’s Shobha Surendran, and the CPI(M)’s sitting MP A.M. Ariff is trailing with 1,89,386.

In Vadakkara, former Kerala health minister K.K. Shailaja, who was the LDF candidate in Vadakkara, has lost to popular Congress leader Shafi Parambil.

National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti have conceded defeat from their respective Lok Sabha seats even as counting of votes was still underway.

According to the EC data for the Baramulla Lok Sabha seat, jailed former MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid (Engineer Rashid) was leading against former chief minister Abdullah by a margin of more than 1.25 lakh votes.

"I think it's time to accept the inevitable. Congratulations to Engineer Rashid for his victory in North Kashmir," Abdullah said in a post on X at 1.37 pm. He said the voters have spoken and in a democracy that is all that matters.

"I don't believe his victory will hasten his release from prison nor will the people of North Kashmir get the representation they have a right to but the voters have spoken and in a democracy that's all that matters," Abdullah said.

Former chief minister Mufti also conceded defeat from the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat. "Respecting the verdict of the people I thank my PDP workers & leaders for their hard work & support despite all the odds. My deepest gratitude to the people who voted for me. Winning & losing is part of the game & wont deter us from our path," Mufti posted on X at 1.58 pm.

National Conference Gujjar leader Mian Altaf is leading from the seat by over 2.29 lakh votes, according to the latest EC figures.

Abdullah also congratulated his party colleagues Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi and Mian Altaf, who are leading by huge margins from Srinagar and Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seats respectively.

"To my @JKNC_ colleagues @RuhullahMehdi & Mian Altaf Sb my heartfelt congratulations. I'm sorry I won't be joining them in the Lok Sabha but I'm sure both of them will do an amazing job representing the people of J&K," Abdullah said in his post.

Raebareli BJP candidate Dinesh Pratap Singh has conceded defeat midway through the counting of votes. In a post on social media, Singh, who is challenging Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, wrote “I worked very hard but there were some lapses for which I apologise to the people of Raebareli. I thank my workers and apologise to the people of Raebareli. We worked hard but the result is not in our hands. The people are like God and their decision is appropriate. I want to assure the people that I will always be there to serve them.”

Singh posted the message when the vote difference between him and Gandhi crossed 1 lakh. The latest figures as provided by the Election Commission showed Gandhi securing over 3.56 lakh votes, establishing a massive lead of nearly 2 lakh votes over Singh, who received a little over 1.57 lakh votes.

Raebareli was last represented by Sonia Gandhi, who became a Rajya Sabha member and did not contest the Lok Sabha seat this time.

In a post on X, Congress MP and general-secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh has implied that the Election Commission of India (ECI) website and various TV channels have deliberately slowed down the updating of results.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi appears to have cemented his victory in the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat with a huge lead of over 2 lakh votes against his rivals, according to figures from the Election Commission.

By 12.13 pm, of the approximately 3.77 lakh votes counted, Gandhi received over 2.25 lakh while his nearest rival, the CPI's Annie Raja, got 96,677 votes and BJP's K. Surendran was a distant third with 50,713 votes.

Gandhi had won from Wayanad in 2019 with 7.06 lakh votes of the total of 10.92 lakh.

Early trends from counting of votes have thrown up disappointing results for the BJP-led NDA, which appears to be losing heavily in its strongholds of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, though it an still potentially form the government at the Centre with about 290 seats.

On its own, the BJP appears to be falling below the majority mark with leads in 236 seats despite significant gains in Odisha, Telangana and Kerala offering some solace after the unexpected losses in the Hindi belt.

Its rival INDIA alliance, forged by a common opposition to the BJP and its ideology, was leading in about 230 seats. In the last elections, the BJP had 303 seats on its own, while the NDA had over 350.

The final numbers are also likely to be far short of the "400-paar" predictions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and "370-paar" for BJP. The exit poll results, which had predicted a thumping majority for the NDA, have also been completely junked by the results.

With the counting on in full swing and trends becoming clearer, Congress MP and general-secretary (communication) says in X post: "Trends for all 543 seats are now available. The following have become clear: 1. It will be a staggering political and decisively moral defeat for Mr. Narendra Modi 2. The exit polls that he orchestrated have been completely exposed for what they were--a total sham."

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said the INDIA alliance has surpassed the numbers predicted by the exit polls and claimed the Opposition bloc will win 295 Lok Sabha seats. Speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Raut said the Congress, which barely got 50 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, is now poised to bag 150.

"The picture is that the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will be ahead in Maharashtra and the INDIA alliance will win 295 (seats in the country)," Raut claimed. "The INDIA alliance has crossed the figures predicted by the exit polls and sprinted ahead. It will cross 295 seats," the Rajya Sabha member added.

The Congress-led INDIA bloc was leading in 200 seats in the early trends, a performance that appeared much better than what was predicted in the exit polls.

The INDIA bloc was leading in 42 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and the BJP-led NDA in 37, according to trends on the Election Commission website.

INDIA bloc parties Samajwadi Party and the Congress were leading in 34 and eight seats, respectively, the election panel's data for polls to the 80 parliamentary constituencies in the state showed. The BJP was leading in 35 seats and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal in two.

The Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) was leading in one seat.

Among the prominent leaders who have taken comfortable leads over their rivals are Narendra Modi in Varanasi, Rajnath Singh in Lucknow, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav in Kannauj and Mainpuri respectively, and Congress candidates Rahul Gandhi and Kishori Lal Sharma in Raebareli and Amethi respectively.

Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty tanked over five per cent in late-morning trade today as the initial trend showed the BJP winning a lesser number of seats than predicted in exit polls.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 3,311.87 points or 4.33 per cent to 73,156.91. The NSE Nifty tumbled 1,102.55 points or 4.73 per cent to 22,161.35. Soon after, the BSE benchmark dived 4,131.44 points or 5.40 per cent to 72,337.34, and the Nifty slumped 1,263.3 points or 5.43 per cent to 22,000.60.

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The BJP appeared to be suffering surprising reverses in some Hindi heartland states, including in Uttar Pradesh which has been key to its electoral dominance nationally since 2014, according to voting trends shown by the Election Commission of India.

In this politically most crucial state, which sends 80 MPs to the 543-member Lok Sabha, the BJP was locked in a neck-and-neck fight with the Samajwadi Party. The EC figures at 11.05 am showed the BJP leading in 35 seats against the SP's 34, with the opposition INDIA bloc ahead in 42 seats.

The BJP had won 62 seats in the state in 2019, reducing the SP to five seats.

The BJP was behind the Congress in Haryana too, as the two parties led in four and six seats respectively. In Rajasthan, the BJP was ahead in 14 seats against eight of the Congress. In 2019, the BJP had won all 10 and 24 seats it contested in these states. Even the one remaining seat in Rajasthan was won by a BJP ally in 2019.

The BJP-JD(U)-LJP(R) alliance in Bihar, however, appeared to be able to fend off a spirited challenge from the RJD-Congress-Left alliance. ECI data showed the ruling coalition ahead in 31 of its 40 seats. They had won 39 seats in 2019.

All figures are based on early trends and may change as more votes are counted.

Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi was leading in the Jalandhar reserve parliamentary constituency against BJP candidate Sushil Rinku in the initial trends, according to Election Commission data. The former Punjab chief minister was leading by 33,021 votes against Rinku.

The Congress has shown a strong performance in Uttar Pradesh, leading in six constituencies. In Rae Bareli, Rahul Gandhi is ahead by 28,326 votes against the BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh. In Amethi, K.L. Sharma maintains a lead of approximately 10,423 votes over Smriti Irani.

In Barabanki, Tanuj Punia, son of veteran leader P.L. Punia, is leading Rajrani Rawat of the BJP by about 16,866 votes. In Sitapur, Rakesh Rathor of Congress is ahead by 22,738 votes against BJP's Rakesh Verma.

In Saharanpur, Imran Masood leads by a margin of 33,128 votes against incumbent BJP MP Raghav Lakhan Pal. In Bansgaon, Sadal Prasad of Congress holds a narrow lead of 355 votes over the BJP's Kamlesh Paswan.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) surges ahead of its rivals in 22 seats, whereas the BJP is leading in five and the Congress in two seats after the initial round of counting, the Election Commission website said.

TMC candidate and sitting MP Abhishek Banerjee is leading in the Diamond Harbour constituency over his nearest rival the BJP's Abhijit Das by a margin of 32,507 votes.

TMC's Hooghly candidate Rachana Banerjee was leading after counting postal ballots over her nearest BJP rival and sitting MP Locket Chatterjee. TMC candidate and two-time MP Asit Mal was leading from Bolpur over her nearest rival BJP's Piya Saha by 6,010 votes.

In Malda Dakshin, Congress candidate Isha Khan Choudhury was leading by 11,733 votes over his nearest BJP rival Sreerupa Mitra Chowdhury.

In Jadavpur, TMC's Sayani Ghosh was leading by 8,048 votes over her nearest BJP rival Anirban Ganguly. In Malda Uttar, sitting MP and BJP candidate Khagen Murmu was leading by a margin of 11,119 votes over his nearest rival TMC's Prasun Banerjee.

In Cooch Behar, BJP candidate and sitting MP Nisiht Pramanik was trailing by a margin of 5,529 votes against his TMC candidate Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia.

Heavyweight BJP candidate and state president Sukanta Majumdar was trailing in Balurghat over his nearest rival TMC's Biplab Mitra by 4,855 votes, as per the EC website. BJP candidate S.S. Ahluwalia was leading in Asansol over his nearest rival TMC's Shatrughan Sinha by 6,956 votes.

TMC candidate Arup Chakraborty was ahead of BJP candidate and sitting MP Subhas Sarkar in Bankura Lok Sabha constituency by 3,765 votes. TMC candidate and the party's Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandopadhyay was leading by 98 votes from the Kolkata North seat over his nearest BJP rival.

In the Bardhaman-Durgapur seat, TMC candidate Kirti Azad was leading by 6,526 votes over his nearest BJP rival Dilip Ghosh. In Kolkata South, TMC candidate Mala Roy was leading over her nearest rival of the CPI(M) Saira Shah Halim by a margin of 12,491 votes.

The Congress-led UDF is leading in majority of seats as EVM counting begins in Kerala.

TMC candidate Abhishek Banerjee is leading in Diamond Harbour constituency of West Bengal.

Azad Samaj Party's Chandrashekhar has a lead of 3,535 votes over the BJP's Om Kumar in Nagina LS seat in Uttar Pradesh the ECI website says.

The BJP is leading in four seats and the Congress in five as per initial trends in Telangana.

Rahul Gandhi has a lead of 2,126 votes over the BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh in Rae Bareli LS seat, says ECI.

In Jharkhand, the Congress is leading in two seats, the BJP in one. In Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has a lead of 3,442 votes over the BJP's Subrat Pathak in Kannauj.

The Congress' Manish Tewari is leading in Chandigarh, while the Congress ahead in 7 seats in Punjab, and Aam Aadmi Party in three.

Heavyweight BJP candidate and state president Sukanta Majumdar was trailing in West Bengal's Balurghat seat over his nearest rival TMC's Biplab Mitra by 2253 votes, as per the EC website

The BJP-led NDA was ahead in 227 parliamentary seats out of 392 for which trends were available, with the Opposition INDIA bloc ahead in at least 137, Election Commission data showed.

The BJP alone was leading on 187 seats and won Surat uncontested, while Congress was ahead in 70 seats at 9.45 am.

Union minister Smriti Irani was trailing in Amethi and former Union minister Maneka Gandhi in Sultanpur. Union minister Nitin Gadkari was leading with a slender margin in Nagpur.

The Election Commission of India trends show Prime Minister Narendra Modi trailing from Varanasi. Once again, these are very early trends.

Though too early to tell, the Opposition INDIA bloc is showing a significant improvement on its 2019 seat count, already gaining in 77 seats. If the current trends are taken as an indicator, the ruling NDA is down 49 seats.

The ruling BJP and Opposition Congress are leading in three Lok Sabha seats each in the postal ballot round of counting in 14 constituencies in Assam, according to TV channels.

For BJP, Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Dibrugarh, Rajya Sabha MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa in Kaziranga and MLA Ranjit Dutta in Tezpur are leading in the initial round.

Lok Sabha deputy leader of opposition Gaurav Gogoi in Jorhat, sitting Nagaon MP Prodyut Bordoloi and MLA Rakibul Hussain in Dhubri are also leading in the postal ballot.

Early trends in Maharashtra indicate Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal, and Supriya Sule, daughter of NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, are leading from their constituencies.

As the counting of postal ballots got underway, sitting Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is leading in Wayanad and his second constituency of Raebareli according to the very early trends that are coming in. However, trends will keep changing throughout the day as counting progresses.

The TMC and the BJP are locked in a neck-and-neck contest in West Bengal with counting of postal ballots underway, with the former having a slight edge, TV channels reported.

Bengali news channel ABP Ananda reported that the TMC was leading in three seats, while the BJP and the Congress were ahead in one seat each. Another Bengali news channel TV9 Bangla reported that TMC was leading in five, whereas the BJP was ahead in four and the Congress in one.

The Election Commission, however, is yet to come out with any trend as of now.