Lok Sabha Election Results 2024 LIVE: INDIA bloc puts up strong fight in trends
Will the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA return to power for a historic Modi 3.0 or will INDIA opposition bloc stop the BJP juggernaut? This will be answered today as counting of votes takes place bringing an end to a mega polling exercise that lasted for more than two months.
Counting of votes is underway- beginning with postal ballots across all counting centres followed by electronic voting machines and matching VVPT slips with EVM results, the Election Commission said.
The Lok Sabha elections were conducted in seven phases: April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1. Twenty states including Delhi voted in a single-phase while Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir polled in 5 phases, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal voted in all seven phases of voting and Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tripura and Manipur polled in two phases, Chhattisgarh and Assam had 3 phases of voting and Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand saw 4 phases of polling.
The results are crucial for Congress- facing an existential challenge in the country- as they will show whether the party has the organizational strength and leadership to challenge the BJP as for the past two consecutive Lok Sabha polls, the party has failed to secure even the main opposition party status. Results today are also crucial for regional stalwarts like Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray as well as several Union ministers, including Piyush Goyal, Bhupender Yadav, Sarbananda Sonowal and Dharmendra Pradhan as well as former chief ministers like Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Basavaraj Bommai, Trivendra Singh Rawat, Digvijay Singh and Bhupesh Baghel.
What did the Exit Polls predict?
All major exit polls projected a massive victory for the NDA with the BJP expected to better its own 2019 tally of 303 seats. India-Today-My Axis poll and Today’s Chanakya projected the NDA tally to be over 400 seats, ABP-CVoter gave them 353-383 seats and Jan Ki Baat estimated the alliance may win between 362 seats and 392 seats.
A look at 2019 election results
In 2019, NDA surged to 353 seats, of which the BJP won 303 alone. The Opposition’s UPA won only 93 seats of which the Congress got 52 in the last Lok Sabha elections.