BJP falls short of the magic number 272, NDA gets simple majority to form government

New Delhi | The BJP-led NDA on Tuesday got a simple majority in the Lok Sabha elections by winning 273 seats.

While results for 498 seats were declared by the Election Commission, counting on 45 seats was still on.

According to the tally on the EC website, the BJP has already won 226 seats, and its allies TDP and JDU won 12 seats each, Shiv Sena 7, LJP (Ram Vilas) 5 and JDS and RLD two seats each.

Other NDA partners including Jana Sena, NCP, UPPL, AJSU, HAMS, SKM and Apna Dal (Sone Lal) have won one seat each.

The BJP had already won the Surat Lok Sabha seat unopposed.

As per the latest tally, the BJP was leading in 12 more seats, while TDP was leading in four more seats and some other NDA partners like AGP were leading in one seat.

Guwahati | Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday snatched the Jorhat seat in Assam from the ruling BJP by defeating sitting MP Topon Kumar Gogoi by a margin of 1,44,393 votes, according to the Election Commission.

Gaurav received 7,51,771 votes, while Topon could corner 6,07,378 votes.

There were a total of four candidates in the fray in Jorhat.

Topon was looking to win the election for the second consecutive term, while Gaurav was a two-time sitting MP from Kaliabor constituency, which was rechristened as Kaziranga in delimitation.

Following delimitation, Gaurav, the deputy leader of the Congress in the outgoing Lok Sabha, was assigned the mighty task of taking on the BJP in Jorhat, which became a stronghold of the ruling party over the last 10 years.

Kolkata | In a repeat of 2019, the CPI(M)-led Left Front is unlikely to win any seat in West Bengal in this Lok Sabha polls this time too.

CPI(M)'s state general secretary and politburo member Mohammed Salim, who had earlier expressed confidence of breaking the jinx, failed to win from Murshidabad constituency.

The Left Front had also failed to win a single seat in the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal.

With results pouring in, the CPI(M)-led Front did not even manage to come second in the 19 seats, the results of which have been declared so far, except in Murshidabad.

In the 23 seats where counting was still going on, the Front was not in the top two positions.

In Dum Dum, where the CPI(M) had fielded senior leader and former Lok Sabha MP Sujan Chakraborty, the party was trailing in the third position.

Patna | Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar will on Wednesday take part in the NDA meeting scheduled in the national capital, highly placed sources said here.

Kumar, whose party is set to grab 12 out of the state's 40 seats, will be leaving for Delhi in the morning.

Kumar had visited Delhi during the weekend when he met top BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

With the BJP falling short of majority, Kumar is being seen as a key player whom the opposition INDIA bloc is also sending fillers.

Amaravati | TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the NDA's 'victory in the Lok Sabha polls and in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections.'

TDP, Janasena and BJP are part of the NDA in the southern state, which took on the YSRCP led by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

"On behalf of the people of Andhra Pradesh, I congratulate you on the NDA's victory in the Lok Sabha and Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections. Our people of Andhra Pradesh have blessed us with a remarkable mandate," said Naidu in a post on X.

Naidu posted this message on the micro-blogging site in reply to a message posted by Modi, thanking the people of Andhra Pradesh for giving NDA an 'exceptional mandate'.

New Delhi | Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday won the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat of Gujarat by a margin of over 7.44 lakh votes, one of the highest in this election, bettering the figure of his 2019 victory.

Shah defeated his nearest Congress rival Sonal Patel by a staggering margin of 744716, announced the Election Commission of India.

The home minister, who had won the seat by a margin of over 5.5 lakh votes in 2019, clinched the seat for the second consecutive term and got 1010972 votes, while Patel received 2,66,256 lakh votes.

In the past, Gandhinagar has been represented in the Lok Sabha by BJP veteran Lal Krishna Advani.

In Indore, BJP's sitting MP Shankar Lalwani won by a potentially record margin of 11,75,092 votes while in the Dhubri seat of Assam, Rakibul Hussain of the Congress was leading by 983712 votes against his BJP rival.

Lalwani defeated his nearest rival from BSP, Lakshman Solanki, who bagged 51,659 votes.

New Delhi | In a consolation to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that failed to win even a single Lok Sabha seat in Delhi, its vote share registered an impressive increase of nearly six per cent as compared to 2019 polls while the winner BJP lost its polled votes by nearly two per cent as compared to 2019 polls, according to results announced on Tuesday.

The Congress that failed to win any seat out of three contested by it in Delhi, lost its vote share by over three per cent as compared to 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The vote share figures of the three parties were likely to change marginally with the final data yet to be released by the Election Commission.

The BJP's vote share of 54.33 per cent yielded it a clean sweep of all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi for the third time in a row. Its vote shares in 2019 and 2014 polls were 56.7 per cent and 46.6 per cent, respectively.

Chandigarh | Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini won the Karnal Assembly bypoll defeating his Congress rival Tarlochan Singh.

According to the Election Commission data, Saini won by a margin of 41,540 votes.

Karnal seat was earlier held by BJP's Manohar Lal Khattar. In the 2019 Assembly polls, Khattar defeated Tarlochan Singh by a margin of over 45,000 votes.

Srinagar | The defeat in Lok Sabha polls has come as a setback for the political careers of former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti in view of their vows not to contest the upcoming assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir till it remains a Union Territory.

While Abdullah was defeated by former MLA and terror-funding accused Sheikh Abdul Rashid by a margin of nearly two lakh votes in Baramulla Lok Sabha seat, Mufti was trounced by Gujjar leader and National Conference (NC) candidate Mian Altaf Ahmad by nearly three lakh votes in Anatnag-Rajouri seat.

With the assembly elections likely to be held before September 30 this year, the defeats have raised a question mark on the participation of Abdullah and Mufti in these elections.

Both the leaders have, at several occasions, ruled out participating in assembly elections till Jammu and Kashmir remained a Union Territory.

Chennai | '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.

Lucknow | In a major upset in the Faizabad parliamentary constituency, where the temple town of Ayodhya is situated, Samajwadi Party candidate Awadhesh Prasad defeated sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh by a margin of 54,567 votes.

According to the Election Commission data, Prasad polled 5,54,289 votes while Lallu Singh got 4,99,722. The BSP's Sachidanand Pandey managed to secure 46,407 votes.

In all, 13 candidates were in the fray in Faizabad.

Lucknow | BJP candidate Maneka Gandhi lost the Sultanpur seat to the Samajwadi Party's Rambhual Nishad by a margin of 43,174 votes, according to Election Commission figures.

While Nishad secured 4,44,330 votes, Gandhi got 4,01,156 votes, according to the EC website.

The third placed Udayraj Verma of the BSP secured 1,63,025 votes.

Kolkata | In a political comeback that can only be described as triumphant, Mahua Moitra, the firebrand leader of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), is headed for a resounding victory in Krishnanagar Lok Sabha seat with a commanding lead over her nearest BJP rival Amrita Roy.

Moitra who bagged 6,24,711 votes was leading by an irreversible margin of 57,083 over her nearest BJP rival Amrita Roy, who managed to pocket 5,67,628 votes.

Moitra's electoral triumph not only secures her seat in Parliament, but also serves as a defiant retort to attempts to sideline her from the political arena.

Her expulsion from the Lok Sabha last year in a controversial cash-for-query case was a temporary setback in her political journey.

Lucknow | BJP candidate Arun Govil, who played the role of Lord Ram in the popular TV serial Ramayana, won from the Meerut Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, defeating his nearest rival Sunita Verma of the Samajwadi Party.

Govil won by a margin of 10,585 votes.

He secured 5,46,469 votes, SP's Sunita Verma got 5,35,884 votes and BSP's Devvrat Kumar Tyagi got 87,025 votes.

Ahmedabad | The Congress on Tuesday broke its decade-long jinx in Gujarat as its candidate Geniben Thakor won from Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat by more than 30,000 votes.

Congress had drawn a blank in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi both in 2014 and 2019 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had swept all 26 seats.

This time, the BJP is poised to win 25 seats.

Thakor defeated the BJP's Rekha Chaudhari by 30,406 votes in a nail-biting contest.

Hyderabad | AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday won the Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency for the fifth consecutive time, defeating his nearest rival K Madhavi Latha of BJP by a margin of over 3.38 lakh votes.

Owaisi secured 6,61,981 votes, while Madhavi Latha got 3,23,894 votes.

Owaisi has been winning the seat since 2004. He had defeated J Bhagavanth Rao of the BJP by over 2.82 lakh votes in 2019.

The Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat has been traditionally a stronghold of the AIMIM, which has maintained a firm grip on the constituency, with a substantial population of Muslims, since 1984.

Rae Bareli (UP) | Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday won the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh by a margin of 3,90,030 votes, bettering his mother Sonia Gandhi's victory margin in 2019.

According to the Election Commission (EC), Rahul Gandhi secured a total of 6,87,649 votes against the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Dinesh Pratap Singh who got 2,97,619 votes. Thakur Prasad Yadav of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) secured 21,624 votes.

Five years ago, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi won the seat by a margin of 1,67,178 votes against Dinesh Pratap Singh.

Sonia Gandhi, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli continuously since 2004, vacated the seat earlier this year and got elected to the Rajya Sabha.

Rae Bareli was the only Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh that the Congress won in 2019.

Rahul Gandhi represented the Amethi seat in the Lok Sabha from 2004 to 2019. In the 2019 general election, he lost the seat to the BJP's Smriti Irani but was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kerala's Wayanad.

Thiruvananthapuram | Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday won the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala with a margin of over 3.5 lakh votes against CPI's Annie Raja.

Gandhi got 6,47,445 votes which was lower than the 7,06,367 votes he got in 2019 from the same constituency.

This time he won by a margin of 3,64,422 votes against his nearest rival, CPI's Annie Raja who got 2,83,023 votes. BJP state President K Surendran had faced off against Gandhi and managed to get 1,41,045 votes.

Chandigarh | Congress party's Manish Tewari won the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, defeating BJP's Sanjay Tandon. Tewari, the former Union minister, won by a margin of 2,504 votes, the EC portal showed.

The Congress fought the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat in an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Counting of votes for the lone Chandigarh seat began at 8 am amid tight security arrangements.

Jammu | The BJP, which is maintaining leads on two Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir, bagged the highest share of more than 24 per cent votes, as per data of Election Commission of India (ECI).

Even as the counting is in its final phase, the BJP got 24.36 per cent (12,44,404) vote share, followed by the National Conference (NC), which is leading the Anantnag and Srinagar Lok Sabha seats in the Kashmir region, got 22.30 per cent votes share (11,39,084 votes).

The Congress, which is contesting against the BJP on two seats of Jammu and Udhampur, got 19.38 per cent vote share (99, 0182), followed by Independents getting a vote share of 23.94 per cent (12,23,161 votes). The PDP got 8.48 vote share (4,33,049 votes).

However, as compared to 2019, the BJP got lesser vote share.

As per the ECI data, the BJP has received 46.39 per cent vote share by securing 16,48,041 votes out of total 3,479,155 votes polled in multi-phased elections in six Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir followed by the Congress with 28.47 per cent.

In 2019, Ladakh seat was part of Jammu and Kashmir. NC, which bagged three seats in 2019, polled just 8 per cent of votes.

Ranchi | Kalpana Soren, wife of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, won the Gandey bypoll by 27,149 votes over her nearest BJP rival Dilip Kumar Verma. The seat fell vacant following the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad.

"I extend heartfelt support to people for their unwavering support...I extend thanks to Disom Guru Shibu Soren Ji (JMM supremo), Hemant Ji...I will work tirelessly for the people. It shows INDIA Bloc unity," she said after her win.

Kalpana had embarked on a political journey at the 51st Foundation Day celebration of the JMM in Giridih district on March 4, claiming that a conspiracy had been orchestrated by opponents ever since the Hemant Soren coalition government came to power in 2019.

Hemant Soren was arrested by the ED on January 31 in connection with a money laundering case linked to an alleged land fraud. He resigned from the post before the arrest.

Chandigarh | Radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh won from Khadoor Sahib seat by defeating Congress' Kulbir Singh Zira. Singh, who fought the election as an Independent candidate, won by a margin of 1,97,120 votes. He is the chief of the 'Waris Punjab De' outfit and is currently lodged in Assam's Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act (NSA).

Indore | NOTA created a record with 2.18 lakh voters in Madhya Pradesh's Indore opting for the 'none of the above' option in the Lok Sabha elections, counting for which is underway.

Of the total voters, 14.01 per cent opted for 'None of the Above', introduced in 2013 following a Supreme Court order.

In the 2019 parliamentary polls, voters in Bihar's Gopalganj had created a record with 51,660 of them, or five per cent, opting for the NOTA option, which is placed as the last option on the electronic voting machine.

In 2014, NOTA polled 46,559 votes in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu by pocketing nearly five per cent of votes.

The tally of NOTA votes in Indore stood at 2,18,674 on Tuesday when BJP's sitting MP from Indore, Shankar Lalwani, won by a potentially record margin of 11,75,092 votes, as per the Election Commission of India website.

New Delhi | As the BJP grapples with a potential shortfall in its Lok Sabha tally, its ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has unequivocally pledged allegiance to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), dismissing any speculation of a pivot towards the INDIA bloc. The TDP is on its way to win 16 Lok Sabha seats out of 25 in Andhra Pradesh.

"Our pre-poll pact with BJP and Janasena in Andhra Pradesh isn't just political arithmetic; it's a matter of credibility," TDP's senior leader Kanakamedala Ravindrakumar said.

Chennai | Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai, who described himself as "Ungal Veetu Pillai" and "Ungal Thambi" ("your son" and "your younger brother") in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls, put up an excellent fight in Coimbatore constituency, coming in second, as per the leads. Annamalai pushed main opposition AIADMK's Singal G Ramachandran to the third spot and the margin between them is more than 1.50 lakh votes while DMK nominee Ganapathy P Rajkumar is ahead of the BJP leader by 79,824 votes till 6.55 pm.

New Delhi | Former India cricketer Kirti Azad, a member of the 1983 World Cup-winning Kapil's Devils, made a strong political comeback beating West Bengal BJP heavyweight Dilip Ghosh from Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Azad, representing the All India Trinamool Congress, defeated Ghosh, the incumbent MP representing Medinipur constituency and former BJP state president, by a margin of 1,37,981 votes.

Kolkata | CPI(M)'s state secretary Mohammed Salim was trailing by a huge 1.56 lakh votes to the Trinamool Congress' Abu Taher Khan in Murshidabad Lok Sabha constituency. Salim has been one of the candidates on whom the CPI(M)-led Left Front was heavily banking on to reopen its account in the Lok Sabha from West Bengal, where it could not win a single seat in the 2019 general elections. TMC's Abu Taher Khan, however, is leading by an almost unassailable lead of 1,59,393 votes over the veteran CPI(M) leader.

Bengaluru | D K Suresh, brother of Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress chief D K Shivakumar, was defeated in the Bangalore Rural constituency by BJP's C N Manjunath on Tuesday, in a big blow to the ruling party in Karnataka. The 58-year-old three-time MP, who was the only Congress candidate to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka, lost by 2,69,647votes, in what is seen as a setback to Shivakumar.

Kolkata | BJP's Tamluk constituency candidate Abhijit Gangopadhyay was ahead of his nearest rival Trinamool Congress' Debangshu Bhattacharya by 59,570 votes. Gangopadhyay, who joined the BJP immediately after resigning as a judge of the Calcutta High Court, stirred political debates with his rulings on various education-related issues in the state.

Shimla | Actor Kangana Ranaut, the BJP candidate from Mandi Lok Sabha seat, has defeated her rival, Congress's Vikramaditya Singh, by 74,755 votes. Kangana polled 5,37,002 votes against 4,62,267 votes polled to King of erstwhile Rampur state, who is also the sitting state Public Works Minister and son of six times chief minister Virbhadra Singh and state Congress chief Pratibha Singh.

Bengaluru | Suspended JD(S) leader and MP Prajwal Revanna, who is facing charges of sexually abusing several women, was on Tuesday defeated in the Hassan Lok Sabha segment, by a margin of 42,649 votes. Shreyas M Patel of Congress was the winner in the constituency.

Bengaluru | The scion of erstwhile royal family of Mysuru Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, and former Ministers Kota Srinivas Poojary and K Sudhakar, all from the BJP, on Tuesday won the Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka. Wadiyar won the Mysore Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 1,39,262 deferating his nearest opponent M Lakshmana of the Congress.

Agartala | Former Tripura chief minister and BJP candidate Biplab Kumar Deb on Tuesday won the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat, defeating his nearest rival Asish Kumar Saha of the Congress by over six lakh votes. Deb, a Rajya Sabha MP, polled 8,81,341 votes as against 2,69,763 by Saha.

Lucknow | The INDIA bloc was leading in 44 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and the BJP-led NDA in 35, according to trends on the Election Commission website.

INDIA bloc parties SP and Congress were leading in 37 and 7 seats, the election panel's data for polls to the 80 parliamentary constituencies in the state showed.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was leading in 33 seats and its allies Rashtriya Lok Dal and Apna Dal in one seat each.

Hyderabad | The ruling Congress and BJP continued their lead in eight seats each out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana as per the trends at 1.30 pm on Tuesday.

The Congress nominees were leading in Peddapalle (SC), Mahabubabad (ST), Warangal (SC), Bhongir, Khammam, Nalgonda, Nagarkurnool (SC) and Zaheerabad, according to Election Commission website.

The BJP candidates were leading in Adilabad (ST), Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Medak, Secunderabad, Malkajgiri, Chevella and Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha seats.

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi maintained his lead over his nearest BJP rival K Madhavi Latha with a margin of over 1.89 lakh votes.

Thiruvananthapuram | After trailing by over 20,000 votes behind BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, Congress' Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday regained the lead with a margin of over 11,000 votes.

During the initial hours of counting, the fight between Chandrasekhar and Tharoor was neck-and-neck with each taking a lead of a few thousand votes.

By noon, the BJP leader gained a healthy lead of around 24,000 votes over Tharoor, who is hoping to win a fourth time from Thiruvananthapuram LS seat.

However, more than an hour later, Tharoor took back the lead from Chandrasekhar by a margin of 11,815 votes.

Amaravati | Five years after suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of a much younger Jagan Mohan Reddy, TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday was on course to lead his party towards a landslide victory in the Andhra Pradesh assembly polls, with allies BJP and Janasena Party (JNP) in tow.

Naidu's latest electoral triumph, where his Telugu Desam Party was ahead in 130 of the 175 seats as per latest figures, comes months after his arrest in an alleged corruption case. In the outgoing House, TDP has 23 members.

Shimla | Congress candidates are ahead in four assembly bypoll seats in Himachal Pradesh, while two of the six Congress rebels who are now BJP candidates are leading from their respective seats, as per Election Commission trends.

Kolkata | The TMC raced ahead of its rivals, leading in 31 seats after several rounds of counting, while the BJP led in 10, and Congress in one, even as it took an insurmountable lead in a number of seats, according to the Election Commission website.

Bhopal | Following the Congress' appeal to electors in Madhya Pradesh's Indore to select the 'None of the Above' option, it has so far got more than 1.7 lakh votes in the Lok Sabha seat, breaking the previous NOTA record of Gopalganj in Bihar.

NOTA gives an option to voters to reject all candidates in a constituency.

In the 2019 elections, the Gopalganj Lok Sabha seat in Bihar recorded the maximum NOTA votes at 51,660, about 5 per cent of the total votes polled in the constituency.

Mumbai | The NDA appeared falling significantly short of its target of bagging 45-plus of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, going by the latest trends in counting of votes.

The BJP was leading in 12 seats and allies Shiv Sena in 7 and NCP in 1 constituency as per the latest trends.

The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) seemed to be faring rather well, leading in 27 seats.

New Delhi | Embroiled in a battle for survival, Left parties marginally improved their performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, leading in eight to 10 seats according to vote counting trends.

Hyderabad | The ruling Congress and BJP appeared to be sharing the honours with BRS ceding ground in Telangana as they were leading in eight seats each out of the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state at noon on Tuesday as the counting of votes progressed.

Thiruvananthapuram | Congress leader Rahul Gandhi appears to have cemented his victory in the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat by attaining a huge lead of over 2 lakh votes against his rivals, according to the figures given by the Election Commission.

By 12.13 pm, of the 3,77,905 votes counted, Gandhi received 2,25,691 while his nearest rival -- CPI's Annie Raja -- got 96,677 votes and BJP's K Surendran was at a distant third with 50,713 votes.

Gandhi had won from Wayanad LS seat in 2019 with a huge margin by getting 7,06,367 votes out of the total of 10,92,197.

New Delhi | With latest trends showing the BJP falling below the majority mark, the Congress on Tuesday said it has become clear that it will be a staggering political and decisively moral defeat for Narendra Modi.

Counting of votes are underway for the Lok Sabha elections, with BJP emerging as the single largest party but not getting a majority on its.

Exit polls on Saturday predicted that Prime Minister Modi will retain power for a third straight term, with the BJP-led NDA expected to win a big majority in the Lok Sabha polls.

New Delhi | Early trends from counting of votes on Tuesday threw up disappointing results for the BJP-led NDA in the Lok Sabha elections, which appears to be losing heavily in its strongholds of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan although it is expected to form the government with about 290 seats.

On its own, the Bharatiya Janata Party appeared to be falling below the majority mark with leads in 236 seats despite significant gains in Odisha , Telangana and Kerala, giving some solace to the party after the unexpected losses in the Hindi belt.

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

Bhubaneswar | The BJP is leading in 18 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, election officials said. While BJD candidates are leading in only two seats- Kandhamal and Jajpur, Congress is leading in Koraput constituency.

Thiruvananthapuram | BJP candidate and actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi appears poised for a win in the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat with a comfortable lead of over 58,000 votes against his nearest rival, according to the Election Commission figures

Chennai | Out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu, the DMK and allies have so far sustained their lead position in 34 seats, according to updates on trends by the Election Commission.

Jaipur | The BJP was leading in 13 Lok Sabha seats and the Congress on nine in Rajasthan, according to the latest Election Commission trends.

Besides the Congress, other INDIA bloc parties CPI(M) and RLP and BAP were leading in one seat each in the state that sends 25 members to the Lower House of Parliament, data on the poll panel's website showed.

BJP candidate from Jaipur Manju Sharma was leading with the highest margin of 2,27,642 votes followed by BJP candidate from Rajsamand Mahima Kumari with a margin of 2,06,606 votes.

BJP's Damodar Agarwal (Bhilwara) and Bhagirath Chaudhary (Ajmer) are leading by 1,85,135 and 1,97,046 votes respectively.

The leading margin of Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal (Bikaner) was 28,142 while Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Jodhpur) and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla (Kota) are ahead with 19,079 and 12,543 votes.

Union minister Kailash Chaudhary is trailing at third place with a margin of 1,27,564 votes.

Murari Meena of the Congress is ahead in Dausa by a margin of 1,22,070 votes, THE data released around 11:35 am showed.

Bharat Adivasi Party candidate Rajkumar Roat is leading in the Banswara seat with a margin of 1,13,680 votes while RLP candidate Hanuman Beniwal is leading in the Nagaur seat by 9,696 votes.

CPI(M) candidate Amra Ram is ahead in Sikar seat by a margin of 43,820 votes.

Lucknow | The INDIA bloc was leading in 43 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and the BJP-led NDA in 36, according to trends on the Election Commission website.

Gangtok | Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) candidate Indra Hang Subba extended his lead to 76,548 votes over his nearest rival Bharat Basnett of Citizen Action Party-Sikkim in the lone Lok Sabha seat in the Himalayan state, according to the Election Commission's website.

Subba polled 1,54,024 votes against 77,476 by Basnett.

SDF's PD Rai was in the third position with 74,236 votes.

Polling was held for the seat on April 19.

Kolkata | The TMC raced ahead of its rivals, leading in 28 seats after several rounds of counting, while the BJP led in 11, Congress and CPI(M) in one each, according to the Election Commission website.

TMC candidate and sitting MP Abhishek Banerjee is leading in the Diamond Harbour constituency over his nearest rival, BJP's Abhijit Das, by a margin of 115,933 votes.

TMC's Hooghly candidate Rachana Banerjee was leading over her nearest BJP rival and sitting MP Locket Chatterjee by a margin of over 12,139 votes.

Jammu | The BJP is ahead of the Congress in Jammu and Udhampur Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, according to Election Commission trends.

BJP's Udhampur candidate Union Minister Jitendra Singh is leading by a margin of 21,569 votes, while sitting MP from Jammu, Jugal Kishore Sharma, is ahead by 57,231 votes.

Singh has polled 1,22,251 votes against Congress's Chaudhary Lal Singh's 1,00,682 votes. Sharma has polled 2,64,113 votes against Congress's Raman Bhalla's 2,06,882 votes.

Talking to PTI at the Jammu counting centre, Sharma said these elections are a big festival. "We will win the elections."

Shimla | The BJP is ahead of the Congress in all four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh, according to Election Commission trends.

BJP's candidate from Mandi, actor Kangana Ranaut, is leading by a margin of 30,017 votes, while Union minister Anurag Thakur, seeking a fifth term from the Hamirpur seat, is ahead by a margin of 71,838 votes, as per the poll panel's data.

Former Union minister and Congress candidate from Kangra seat, Anand Sharma, is trailing by 1,11,047 votes and former BJP state president and sitting BJP MP from Shimla seat, Suresh Kashyap, is leading by 36,547 votes.

Talking to the PTI, Suresh Kashyap said that results seem to be on the lines of exit polls and people have made up their mind to make Narendra Modi the prime minister for a third term. the BJP leader expressed his gratitude to the party leaders, workers and voters.

Counting began at 8 am at 80 counting centres across the state for Himachal Pradesh's four Lok Sabha seats and six assembly constituencies where bypolls were held, officials said.

The bypolls were held on June 1, simultaneously with elections to the four Lok Sabha seats.

The assembly constituencies where bypolls were held are Sujanpur, Dharamshala, Lahaul & Spiti, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar.

Alappuzha (Kerala) | AICC general secretary K C Venugopal raised his lead to 11,833 votes in Kerala's Alappuzha constituency as the counting of votes was progressing in the segment.

CPI (M) leader and sitting MP A M Ariff is trailing at the present phase as Venugopal was seen steadily increasing lead.

Ariff was the lone Left MP who could reach the Lok Sabha from the southern state in 2019 polls.

BJP's senior leader Shobha Surendran is in the third position.

Chandigarh | The Congress was leading in one of the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana, the BJP in four and the AAP in one on Tuesday, according to Election Commission trends.

According to the EC data available at 10 am, Congress stalwart Kumari Selja had secured a healthy lead of 35,084 votes over her BJP rival Ashok Tanwar in the Sirsa seat.

In Rohtak, senior Congress leader Deepender Singh Hooda was ahead of BJP's sitting MP Arvind Sharma by 32,252 votes.

Congress' Satpal Brahamchari was leading over sitting BJP MP Mohan Lal Badoli by a margin of 3,216 votes.

Similarly, Congress' Raj Babbar was leading by 28,487 votes in Gurugram over Union minister and BJP candidate Rao Inderjit Singh.

In the Ambala constituency, Congress' Varun Chaudhary was leading over his BJP rival Banto Kataria by 22,907 votes.

In Karnal, former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar was leading over his Congress rival Divyanshu Budhiraja by a margin of 10,766 votes after trailing briefly.

Union minister Krishan Pal Gurjar, who is the sitting MP from Faridabad, was leading over the Congress' Mahender Pratap Singh by 8,238 votes.

BJP's Ranjit Singh Chautala was leading over Congress' Jai Prakash in Hisar by a margin of 4,787 votes.

In Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, BJP's sitting MP Dharambir Singh was leading over his Congress rival Rao Dan Singh by a margin of 7,902 votes.

Aam Aadmi Party's state unit chief Sushil Gupta was ahead of his BJP rival Naveen Jindal by a wafer-thin margin of 2,692 votes in Kurukshetra.

Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Singh Chautala was also in the fray but was trailing.

In the Karnal assembly constituency, where a bypoll was held, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini was leading by 2,407 votes over Congress' Tarlochan Singh.

The Jannayak Janta Party, which had fielded candidates on all 10 seats after its alliance with the BJP ended in March, was also trailing.

The counting of votes began at 8 am.

In the 2019 general elections, the BJP had won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana.

This time, the Congress has fielded candidates on nine seats while its INDIA bloc ally AAP is contesting the Kurukshetra seat.

Chennai | The BJP-led NDA was surging ahead in two southern states--Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka while the respective blocs led by the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu and Congress in Kerala were on their way for another excellent show, going by the latest trends emerging from the counting of voted polled in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls.

As part of its southern focus, the BJP had invested much pride and hardwork to net as much as possible from the 131 seats on offer from the fiver southern states--Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and the two UTs of Lakshadweep and Puducherry.

According to the latest EC update, BJP was leading in 18 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka while its ally JD(S) was ahead in three. Ruling Congress' nominees were leading in seven seats.

Among the key candidates that were ahead of their rivals were suspended JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, arrested recently by the police over allegations of sexually abusing several women, with his purported act also being filmed.

In Andhra Pradesh, the NDA was leading in 20 of the 25 Lok Sabha polls. While N Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP was ahead in 15 seats, allies BJP and Janasena Party were leading in three and two seats, respectively. Ruling YSRCP candidates were leading in the rest.

It was a close contest in Congress-ruled Telangana. While the ruling party was leading in eight seats, the BJP was ahead in seven. AIMIM and BRS were leading in one seat each.

The blocs led by DMK and Congress were surging ahead in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, respectively, amid ample indications that they might yet again sweep the polls in the two southern states that have always eluded the BJP any major electoral gains. The respective blocs had decisive clinched the polls in 2019 as well in the two states.

According to the latest trends made available for 38 of the 39 seats by the EC for Tamil Nadu, the DMK was leading in 20. The alliance' nominees were ahead in 36 seats. Opposition AIADMK and NDA constituent PMK were leading in one seat each.

Kerala was on its way for another Congress-led UDF sweep and the opposition party was leading in 13 of the 20 seats, with its ally IUML ahead in two. UDF constituents KEC and RSP were ahead in one seat each.

BJP was leading in two, including Thrissur and the ruling CPI (M) in one segment, according to the latest EC updates.

Congress was leading in Lakshadweep and NDA-ruled Puducherry as well.

Shillong | The Congress was leading in the Tura seat in Meghalaya on Tuesday, while the Voice of the People's Party (VPP) was ahead in the Shillong constituency, according to the Election Commission.

Congress candidate Saleng Sangma was leading in the Tura seat over NPP MP Agatha Sangma, who is the sister of CM Conrad K Sangma, by 1,09,806 votes.

VPP candidate Ricky AJ Syngkon was ahead in the Shillong seat over three-term Congress MP Vincent H Pala by 1,90,699 votes. NPP candidate Ampareen Lyngdoh was at the third spot.

New Delhi | The BJP was leading on six seats and the Congress on one in Delhi on Tuesday, according to Election Commission trends.

Congress's Jai Prakash Agarwal was leading by a margin of 624 votes, EC data showed.

BJP's North East Delhi candidate Manoj Tiwari, who is pitted against Congress's Kanhaiya Kumar, was leading by a margin of 31,547 votes.

West Delhi candidate Kamaljeet Sehrawat, up against AAP's Mahabal Mishra, was ahead by a margin of 31,315 votes and North West Delhi candidate Yogender Chandoloya was leading by 42,922 votes, the poll panel's data showed.

On East Delhi seat, AAP's Kuldeep Kumar was trailing by a margin of 9,407 votes to BJP's Harsh Malhotra.

BJP's Ramvir Singh Bidhuri was ahead by a margin of 13,201 votes against AAP's Sahi Ram Pahalwan from South Delhi, while in New Delhi constituency, BJP's Bansuri Swaraj -- daughter of late veteran leader Sushma Swaraj -- was in the lead by a margin of over 12,000 votes.

The BJP is in a direct contest with the Congress-AAP alliance in the national capital.

The BJP had won all seven seats in Delhi in the 2014 and 2019 general elections.

Kohima | Congress candidate S Supongmeren Jamir was leading over his nearest rival Chumben Murry of the NDPP by over 23,500 votes in the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland, according to the Election Commission.

Jamir polled 2,02,415 votes, while Murry 1,78,896 and Independent candidate Hayithung Tungoe Lotha got 2,927 votes.

A total of 57.72 per cent of 13.25 lakh people had cast their votes in the elections to the seat on April 19.

Counting of votes was underway at 17 counting centres.

Dehradun | 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.

Leh | Independent candidate Mohmad Haneefa is leading in the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency over his Congress and BJP rivals, according to Election Commission trends Haneefa has got more than 16,743 votes so far, followed by Congress' Tsering Namgyal (5813 votes) and BJP's Tashi Gyalson (5,194 votes).

Kolkata | The TMC surged ahead of its rivals as it was leading in 24 seats, whereas the BJP was leading in seven and the Congress in three seats after the initial round of counting, the Election Commission website said.

Vadakara (Kerala), Jun 4 (PTI) Congress's young MLA Shafi Parambil is leading by 12,639 votes in volatile Vadakara constituency in north Kerala against his nearest rival candidate CPI (M)'s K K Shailja as some rounds of votes were counted on Tuesday.

Parambil gained an initial lead of over 80 votes over Shailja when the postal votes were started counting.

Both Shailja and Parambil switched their leads at various phases of counting.

But, later Parambil was seen steadily increasing his lead.

As per the latest figures of the Election Commission, Parambil raised his lead to 12,639 votes.

Bhubaneswar | BJP has established early leads in at least 50 assembly seats in Odisha, as per the Election Commission of India.

BJD nominees, on the other hand, were leading in 35 constituencies in 94 of 147 assembly seats in the state for which early trends were available till 10.30 am.

Congress was ahead in seven seats and the CPI (M) in one, while an Independent candidate was also leading, Odisha Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nikunja Bihari Dhal said.

Several Odisha ministers were trailing, while Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was leading in Kantabanji over his nearest rival Laxman Bag of the BJP by a mere 158 votes.

Finance Minister Bikram Arukha, Forest and Environment Minister PK Amat, Science and Technology Minister Ashok Panda, Water Resources Minister Tukuni Sahu, Steel and Mines Minister Prafulla Mallick, Planning and Coordination Minister Rajendra Dholakia were trailing.

Counting was underway in 70 centres across the state. Around 18-19 rounds of counting will be held for the seats.

Assembly Speaker and BJD leader Pramila Mallik was leading in Binjharpur, while minister Jagannath Saraka was leading in Bissam Cuttack, and BJD's Mahesh Sahoo in Hindol.

CPI (M) candidate and sitting MLA Laxman Munda was leading in Bonai assembly constituency. Independent candidate Soumya Ranjan Patnaik was leading in Ghasipura MLA seat over BJD nominee Badri Narayan Patra.

New Delhi | The BJP-led NDA on Tuesday was leading in 280 seats to cross the majority in trends available for 528 seats, while the Congress also crossed the 100-mark in terms of leads, the Election Commission data showed.

The BJP was ahead in 234 seats at 10:30 am, and won the Surat seat in Gujarat uncontested.

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

The BJP appeared suffering big losses in Uttar Pradesh, where the Samajwadi party was leading in 33 seats.

In Andhra Pradesh, the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP was ahead, while the BJD looked headed for a rout in Odisha in Lok Sabha elections.

Bhopal | The BJP was leading in all 29 Lok Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, as per trends available so far of vote counting underway on Tuesday.

Prominent BJP candidates who were leading included Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Vidisha), Faggan Singh Kulaste (Mandla), Shankar Lalwani (Indore), Shivmangal Singh Tomar (Morena), Sandhya Rai (Bhind), Lata Wankhede (Sagar), Virendra Kumar (Tikamgarh), Alok Sharma (Bhopal) and Rodmal Nagar (Rajgarh).

Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh was trailing in Rajgarh where Rodmal Nagar was leading over him by a margin of 10,890 votes, as per latest official figures.

In Chhindwara, Congress sitting MP Nakul Nath was trailing. BJP's Vivek Bunty Sahu was leading over him by 3,806 votes.

Patna | The ruling NDA is leading in 30 Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar, and INDIA bloc is ahead in seven, according to initial trends avaliable on the EC website.

While BJP candidates are leading in Paschim Champaran, Purvi Champaran, Araria, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Maharajganj, Begusarai, Patna Sahib and Nawada seats, candidates of its alliance partner JD(U) are leading in Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Supaul, Kishanganj, Purnea, Madhepura, Gopalganj, Banka, Munger and Nalanda seats.

Former Bihar chief minister and founder of Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) Jitan Ram Manjhi, another alliance partner of NDA, is leading by 29,767 votes over his nearest rival Kumar Sarvjeet of RJD in Gaya Lok Sabha seat, according to early trends available on the EC website.

RJD candidates are leading in Valmiki Nagar, Ujiarpur, Patliputra and Jahanabad constituencies, Congress, part of the INDIA alliance, is leading in Katihar and Sasaram constituencies. Another INDIA alliance partner, Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Liberation is leading in Karakat. CPI, another partner of Mahagathbandhan, is leading in Begusarai constituency.

Hina Shahab, an independent candidate, is leading in Siwan.

Counting is underway at more than 36 centres in the state. Polling was held for those seats in seven phases between April 19 and June 1. PTI PKD

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Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 4 (PTI) Pathanamthitta Lok Sabha seat saw UDF's Anto Antony leading by over 4,000 votes against his nearest rival on Tuesday in the constituency where the BJP had fielded Anil K Antony, the son of Congress stalwart A K Antony.

With over 27,000 votes, Anto Antony was ahead of CPI(M)'s Thomas Isaac who received around 22,000 votes, according to the latest figures given by the Election Commission.

Anil Antony was third with around 16,000 votes.

The campaign for the Pathanamthitta LS seat had seen the arrival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in the constituency to garner votes for Anil.

Bengaluru | The BJP was ahead in 17 seats, Congress in eight and JD(S) in three as per initial counting trends in 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka on Tuesday, according to Election Commission officials.

Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, who is facing allegations of sexually abusing several women and also recording them, was leading. He has already been suspended by the JD(S).

JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and Union Minister Pralhad Joshi (BJP) were ahead in the Mandya and Dharwad Lok Sabha segments, respectively, according to official sources.

Also leading in the initial rounds were erstwhile Mysuru royal family scion Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar of BJP in Mysore, party veteran B S Yediyurappa's son B Y Raghavendra in Shimoga, saffron party senior leader and former Chief Minister Jagadish Shetttar from Belgaum and BJP leader Tejasvi Surya (Bangalore South).

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani was trailing in Gulbarga.

Former Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri (BJP) and former Chief Minister Bommain (BJP) had taken early lead in Uttara Kannada and Haveri segments, respectively.

Among those trailing are expelled BJP leader K S Eshwarappa and film star Shivrajkumar's wife Geetha Shivrajkumar of Congress in Shimoga.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar's brother and MP D K Suresh was also trailing against eminent cardiologist and former PM H D Deve Gowda's son-in-law Dr C N Manjunath of BJP from Bangalore Rural, according to initial counting trends.

Karnataka is the most important State for the BJP in south India as it's only here that it had held power in the past.

The Congress won a mere one seat out of the total 28 in the State in the 2019 general elections.

The BJP had swept the previous Lok Sabha elections bagging 25 seats, while an independent backed by it also won.

The JD(S), headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, had emerged victorious in one constituency. The Congress and the JD(S) were running a coalition government back then and had fought the election together.

The regional outfit joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in September last year and fought the Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the BJP, and is contesting in three seats -- Mandya, Hassan and Kolar.

Mumbai | 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 Gadkari, who is contesting his third Lok Sabha polls from Nagpur, took a lead over Congress candidate Vikas Thakre, an election official said.

Union minister Piyush Goyal, who contested his maiden Lok Sabha election from Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat, was leading over Congress candidate Bhushan Patil.

In Baramati seat, Supriya Sule took a lead over her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar, the wife of Ajit Pawar.

In Kalyan seat, Shrikant Shinde, who is seeking a third term in Parliament, was leading over his rivals.

In Thane seat, CM Eknath Shinde's close confidante Naresh Mhaske was also ahead of his rivals.

Nagpur | Union minister Nitin Gadkari was leading by 1,700 votes over his nearest rival Vikas Thakre of Congress after the first round of counting of votes in Nagpur Lok Sabha seat.

The BJP nominee had secured 13,918 votes while Thakre polled 12,131 votes after the first round, an official said.

Kolkata | The TMC surged ahead of its rivals as it was leading in nine seats, whereas the BJP was leading in two and the Congress in one seat 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 BJP's Abhijit Das by a margin of 8707 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 6010 votes.

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

In Jadavpur, TMC's Sayani Ghosh was leading by 8048 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 5529 votes against his TMC candidate Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia.

In Kolkata's south seat, TMC candidate Mala Roy was leading over her nearest rival of the CPI(M) Saira Shah Halim by a margin of 12,491 votes.

Counting of votes for 42 Lok Sabha constituencies began at 8 am.

Guwahati | The ruling BJP and its allies, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United Peoples' Party Liberal (UPPL), is leading in nine, opposition Congress in four and an independent in one of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam on Tuesday, according to election officials.

BJP is ahead in seven constituencies with Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Dibrugarh, Rajya Sabha MP Kamakhya Prasad Tasa in Kaziranga, MLA Ranjit Dutta in Tezpur, sitting MP Pradan Baruah in Lakhimpur, Bijuli Kalita Medhi in Guwahati, Dilip Saikia in Darrang-Udalguri and Parimal Suklabaidya in Silchar (SC) taking initial leads.

NDA constituents AGP and UPPL have also maintained initial leads in Barpeta and Kokrajhar with MLA Phanibhushan Choudhury and Jayanta Basumatary respectively.

Lok Sabha Deputy leader of opposition Gaurav Gogoi in Jorhat, sitting Nagaon MP Prodyut Bordoloi, MLA Rakibul Hussain in Dhubri and Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury in Karimganj are leading currently.

Independent candidate J I Kathar has maintained a slender lead against his BJP rival Amarsingh Tisso in Diphu (ST) constitruency.

Among the prominent candidates who are trailing are AIUDF president and three time Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal and BJP's Jorhat sitting MP Topon Gogoi.

Counting is being held in 152 halls, equipped with 1,941 counting tables, across 52 centres with 5,823 counting personnel and 64 general observers involved in the exercise.

Polling were held in three phases on April 19, April 26 and May 7 for Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaziranga, Sonitpur, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Diphu (ST), Darrang-Udalguri, Karinganj, Silchar (SC), Barpeta, Kokrajhar, Dhubri and Guwahati.

The NDA alliance in the state contested in all the 14 seats with the BJP in 11 seats while the Congress, a constituent of the 16-party United Opposition Forum Assam (UOFA), contested in 13 seats and left the Dibrugarh seat for Assam Jatiya Parishad while the AIUDF contested in three and AAP in two.

In the outgoing Lok Sabha, BJP held nine seats, Congress three, AIUDF and an independent one each from the state.

New Delhi | The BJP-led NDA on Tuesday was ahead with leads in 227 parliamentary seats out of 392 for which trends were available, with opposition INDIA bloc ahead in at least 137, Election Commission data showed.

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.

Counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections has begun across states and Union Territories, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said.

According to the Conduct of Election Rules, postal ballots were taken up for counting first and the process of counting of votes recorded in electronic voting machines (EVMs) began 30 minutes later.

The process of counting votes cast through postal ballots and EVMs will continue simultaneously.

While the Lok Sabha has 543 members, counting is being held for 542 seats after the BJP's Surat candidate Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed.

Counting of votes is also underway for the assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, where polling was held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections.

Elections to the assemblies of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim were also held alongside the Lok Sabha polls. The results of these elections were declared on June 2.

Since 2019, VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) slips from five randomly selected polling stations per assembly constituency -- or segment in case of Lok Sabha seats -- are matched with the EVM count for greater transparency.

Thiruvananthapuram | The Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat is witnessing a neck-and-neck fight between Congress' Shashi Tharoor and Union Minister of State for Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar as votes for the constituency are counted on Tuesday.

Both the candidates kept switching the lead between them with small margins during the initial hours of counting.

According to latest figures given by the Election Commission, Tharoor was leading by over 2,000 votes.

Ahmedabad | The BJP was leading in 22 and the Congress in three Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat as per early trends, an election official said on Tuesday.

Counting of votes for the single-phase elections in 25 seats held on May 7 began at 8 am on Tuesday.

The Bharatiya Janata Party was leading on 22 and Congress on three seats, the Election Commission of India (ECI) data showed.

BJP leader Amit Shah is ahead on Gandhinagar seat, while Mansukh Mandaviya is leading from Porbandar.

Congress candidate geniben Thakor was ahead on Banaskantha seat, leaving behind her BJP rival Rekha Chaudhary. In Sabarkantha, Congress candidate and tribal leader Tushar Chaudhary was leading in early trends.

In the Vadodara seat, BJP's Hemang Joshi was ahead. The BJP candidates were ahead in Ahmedabad (East), Panchmahal, Vadodara, Chhota Udepur, Bardoli, Valsad, Bhavnagar, Porbandar and Bharuch.

Panaji, Jun 4 (PTI) The BJP and the Congress were leading in one Lok Sabha seat each in Goa, as per early trends of vote counting underway on Tuesday for the two constituencies in the coastal state.

BJP's sitting MP Shripad Naik was leading from North Goa seat.

Congress' Viriato Fernandes was leading over BJP nominee Pallavi Dempo in South Goa seat, after the first round of counting.

Chandigarh | The Congress was leading in six Lok Sabha seats, while the AAP in four constituencies in Punjab, according to initial trends.

The Congress was leading from Amritsar, Jalandhar, Fatehgarh Sahib, Ferozepur, Gurdaspur and Patiala seats and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was leading from Hoshiarpur, Anandpur Sahib, Sangrur and Bathinda seats, the trends showed.

Radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh, who was contesting as an independent, was leading from Khadoor Sahib seat, while Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, the son of one of the two assassins of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was leading from Faridkot seat.

Shiromani Akali Dal candidate Harsimrat Kaur Badal was trailing from the Bathinda Lok Sabha seat against her nearest rival and AAP nominee Gurmeet Singh Khuddian in initial trends, according to the Election Commission.

A three-time MP, Harsimrat was trailing by 490 votes, the EC website showed.

Counting of votes for the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and the lone Chandigarh seat began at 8 am amid tight security arrangements.

Jaipur | The BJP was leading in 22 Lok Sabha seats, while the Congress on three in Rajasthan as the counting of postal ballots was taken up first in the 25 constituencies in the state, according to news channels.

According to the Election Commission of India, three Congress and as many BJP candidates were leading.

Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is trailing in the Bikaner seat with a margin of 2,282 votes.

According to the official trends by ECI, Congress candidates Govind Ram Meghwal (Bikaner), Pratap Singh Khachariawas (Jaipur), Anil Chopra (Jaipur Rural) and BJP candidates Mahima Kumari (Rajsamand), Indu Devi (Karauli) and Lumbaram (Jalore) were leading till 9 am.

Channels showed that BJP candidates were leading in Jodhpur, Ajmer, Sikar, Pali, Banswara, Kota while RLP's Hanuman Beniwal (Nagaur) and Congress's Murari Lal Meena (Dausa) were leading in their respective seats.

Thiruvananthapuram | Actor-politician and BJP candidate Suresh Gopi is leading by over 3,000 votes against his nearest rivals in the Thrissur Lok Sabha seat, according to the initial figures given by the Election Commission.

Gopi's nearest rival is LDF's V S Sunilkumar.

Gopi had lost from Thrissur in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and then in the 2021 state assembly polls.

Kolkata | The TMC and the BJP were on Tuesday locked in a neck-and-neck contest in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal as it was leading in 19 seats, whereas the BJP was leading in 17 seats after the initial round of counting of postal ballots, Election Commission officials said.

However, TV channels reported that BJP was leading in 19 seats, whereas the TMC was ahead in 15 seats.

Bengali news channel ABP Ananda, however, reported that TMC was leading in 15 seats, while the BJP was leading in 19 seats and the Congress and the CPI (M) were ahead in one seat each.

Another Bengali news channel TV 9 Bangla reported that TMC was leading in 17 seats, whereas the BJP was ahead in 22 seats, whereas the Congress in one.

Counting of votes for 42 Lok Sabha constituencies began at 8 am.

Thiruvananthapuram | The Congress-led UDF is leading in the majority of seats according to trends from the counting of EVM ballots that began in the state at 8.30 am on Tuesday.

UDF candidates Dean Kuriakose and N K Premachandran, from Idukki and Kollam Lok Sabha seats respectively, were leading by a huge margin over their nearest rivals, according to early trends.

The Thiruvananthapuram LS seat is witnessing a neck-and-neck fight between Congress's Shashi Tharoor and BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Counting is underway for the 20 seats in Kerala, and early trends also indicate a close contest between the candidates of the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-led LDF in some seats of the state.