Riding on a massive saffron surge sweeping through most parts of India, the BJP-led NDA government looks set to become the only non-Congress government to return to power in the Indian history. The alliance has taken a massive lead over the Congress-led UPA. According to the latest trends, the alliance has crossed the majority mark of 272 and is racing towards 350 seats mark out of the total 542 Lok Sabha seats. NDA had won 336 seats in 2014 polls, in which BJP had garnered 282 seats.
As predicted in exit polls, BJP has made handsome gains in West Bengal and has managed to thwart the threats from BSP-SP Mahagathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh. The saffron wave not only swept through the Hindi heartland and Gujarat, but also rippled through West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Only Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh appeared untouched. Even in Telangana, the BJP was ahead in four seats, the same as the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.
Here are the live updates:
* Prime Minister Narendra Modi wins Varanasi seat by a margin of 3.85 lakh votes. Former J&K chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti loses Anantnag seat in J&K.
* Smriti Irani extends lead against Rahul Gandhi to over 13,000 votes in Amethi. Jyotiraditya Scindia trailing by over 1 lakh votes from Guna, Madhya Pradesh.
* Amit Shah wins Gandhinagar seat by over 5 lakh votes.
In North East Delhi, BJP’s Manoj Tiwari leading with 4,40,050 votes against Congress’ Sheila Dikshit.
* Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading by nearly 3 lakh votes in Varanasi.
* BJP’s Tejasvi Surya wins Bengaluru South seat. Rahul Gandhi wins Wayanad seat in Kerala.
* Jagan Reddy to take oath of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister on May 30.
* K Chandrashekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha trailing from Nizamabad, BJP candidate Dharmapuri Arvind leading by over 31,000 v ..
Congress candidate Shatrughan Sinha trailing by 1,33,959 votes against BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib
* Meanwhile, Jagan Reddy’s YSRCP wave sweeps Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections. Party is leading on 149 seats, TDP on 25 seats and Janasena Party on 1 seat.
* Former Home Minister & Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde trailing from Solapur, Maharashtra.
* Former Prime Minister HD Devegowda trailing from Tumkur. Pragya Thakur leading by a big margin from ..