BJP-led NDA won 293 seats, opposition INDIA block 232

Around 642 million people voted in India's Lok Sabha elections held over seven phases in a mammoth six-week period. The counting of votes began starting with postal ballot papers amid tight security. The counting for State Legislative Assemblies of 175 Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and 147 Assembly constituencies in Odisha and results of bypolls in 25 Assembly constituencies also began, reports ANI.

With counting progressing in Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is leading on more than 100 seats as per the latest trends according to TV channels.

The Lok Sabha elections for 543 seats of the lower house were held across seven phases.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is eyeing a third straight term in power, while the Opposition under the umbrella of the INDIA bloc is seeking to wrest power from the ruling party.

Most exit polls predicted a straight term for prime minister Narendra Modi, with quite few of them projecting a two-thirds majority for the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The Congress party and its allies dismissed the exit polls as "orchestrated" and a work of "fantasy", asserting that the opposition INDIA bloc will form the next government at the Centre.

Strict security has been put in place for the smooth conduct of counting of votes for over 8,000 candidates in this general election.

Reuters reports: Narendra Modi's BJP-led alliance raced away to lead in more than 272 seats - the minimum needed for a simple majority in the 543-member lower house of parliament - in early vote-counting trends on Tuesday, TV channels said.

Early counting shows Tinamool Congress’s novice candidate and actress Rachana Banerjee leads in against BJP’s heavyweight contestant and actress Locket Chatterjee in the Hooghly (General) Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal.

Earlier, ANI quoted India’s Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar as saying a "very robust system" has been put in place. "There are around 1.05 million booths. Each booth will have 14 tables. There are observers and micro-observers. Nearly, 7-8 million people are involved in the process," he said.

The mammoth exercise to count votes polled for the Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 elections began at 8:00 am on Tuesday.

The Lok Sabha elections were conducted in seven phases- on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.

Congress worker Jagdish Sharma on Tuesday alleged that the elections have been looted adding that the counting of votes is just a formality because the people of the country believe in the Constitution.

"I have already said 6 days ago that the election has been looted, it (counting of vote) is just a formality because the people of the country believe in the Constitution system. All Congress party leaders will come but I will not wait for the Constitutional result," he said.

When asked about the party's claim of winning 295 seats, Sharma said that the claims are based on the trust in people.

"Not only 295, we may win 300 seats. These claims are being made because of the trust in people, but we do not have trust in EVM. We have been losing for 10 years and still, we are fighting, fighting every day. My leaders are standing with the people, they are true to their work," the Congress worker said.

Narendra Modi's BJP-led alliance raced to a clear majority in the 543-member lower house of parliament in early vote-counting trends on Tuesday, TV channels showed.

The channels showed the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was ahead in more than 300 seats, with BJP alone ahead in 255. The opposition INDIA alliance led by Rahul Gandhi's Congress party was ahead in 172 seats, with Congress alone ahead in 71, Reuters report.

NDTV reports the NDA leads in 292 seats, soaring past 272 – the minimum to form a majority while the opposition INDIA alliance led by Rahul Gandhi's Congress party was well ahead in 211 seats

Here is look at the major parties of the alliances

NDA alliance

• Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

• Apna Dal (Soneylal)

• Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP)

• Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal (NISHAD)

INDIA alliance

• Samajwadi Party (SP)

• Congress

• Trinamool

• Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)

PDM alliance

• Apna Dal (Kamerawadi)

• All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)

As the counting progresses, the gap between Congress's Ajay Rai and PM Modi is narrowing. According to the ECI's data, the vote difference between the two candidates is now 1,628, which was over 6,000 votes a few minutes ago. So far, Rai has secured 21,552 and Modi has got 19,924 votes, Hindustan Times reports.

Congress MP's Rahul Gandhi is contesting from Raebareli and faces competition from BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh. Raebareli is Gandhi's second seat, with Wayanad in Kerala being the other.

Rahul Gandhi is leading on Rae Bareli seat by over 16,000 votes, as per early trends shown by ECI.

In Kerala, Rahul Gandhi of Indian National Congress is leading by 13,163 in Wayanad constituency as of 9.09 a.m.

NDTV reports that BJP-led NDA is close to 300 seats while the opposition INDIA is doing better in 210 as per the latest trends.

Rahul Gandi's Congres-led INDIA alliance is leading on 44 out of total 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, while the BJP-led NDA is leading on 36 seats, as per early trends.

Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Modi's BJP were locked in a neck-and-neck contest in West Bengal, with the former having a slight edge, TV channels reported.

Bengali news channel ABP Ananda reported that TMC was leading in three seats, while the BJP and the Congress were ahead in one seat each. Another Bengali news channel TV 9 Bangla, reported that TMC was leading in five, whereas the BJP was ahead in four and the Congress in one.

Ramesh Congress General Secretary in-charge Communications, Jairam Ramesh says, "These trends show that the present (PM) is going to become former. This is his moral and political defeat. It has never happened before that the Prime Minister trails from his own constituency. The trends in Varanasi are just the trailer."

The Nifty index .NSEI dropped as much as 3.76% to 22,389.85 points while the BSE index .BSESN fell to a low of 73,659.29 points, down 3.67% on the day. Both indexes had touched lifetime highs on Monday.

By 0425 GMT, however, both markets had recovered slightly to trade down around 2% each.

As of Monday's close, benchmark indexes had grown by a little more than three times in value since Modi became prime minister in May 2014.

The rupee INR=IN dropped to as low as 83.4375 against the dollar versus its previous close of 83.1425. The benchmark 10-year bond yield IN10YT=RR was up 8 basis points at 7.02% in early trade.

Indian financial markets sold off sharply on Tuesday morning, as early vote counting trends suggested PM Modi's BJP-led alliance is unlikely to win an overwhelming majority as predicted by exit polls over the weekend, Reuters reports .

"The numbers for NDA are subdued and below expectations. So we are witnessing profit booking as investors are nervous. We need to wait one more hour for greater clarity," said Kranthi Bathini, director of equity strategy at Mumbai-based Wealthmills Securities.

"But we can see profit booking continuing and extending if these trends continue," he said.

Exit polls in the weekend projected a big win for Modi's National Democratic Alliance (NDA), leading to markets soaring to all-time highs on Monday as investors were buoyed by expectations of sustained economic growth.

Traders said the markets were selling off on Tuesday as investors awaited more clarity on the total number seats that the NDA would win.

There are several states where either Modi’s BJP-led NDA or Rahul Gandi’s Congress-led INDIA solely leads in all seats in the early trends.

In Tamil Naidu, INDIA leads in 34 seats while others in 4 seats, but NDA has none at all. The NDA, however, leads in all of 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh. In Andhra Pradesh, NDA leads in 20 out 25 seats with India came nil as others secure leads in the remaining 5 seats. INDIA also gets a hold on 9 out 13 seats in Punjab, and the NDA gets none as the remaining 4 seats falls to the other parties. The NDA, however, bagged leads in all of 4 seats in Himachal Pradesh.

Meanwhile in Delhi, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi reaches the residence of party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in Khan Market, ANI reports.

Followings are some prominent Indian leaders contesting the election

Narendra Modi: Prime Minister Modi, is seeking a third term from Varanasi. He is contesting against Congress leader and INDIA bloc candidate Ajay Rai. PM Modi won the seat by huge margins in 2014 and 2019.

Amit Shah: The Home Minister is seeking his second straight term from Gandhinagar, a stronghold of BJP. Shah, who earlier served as BJP President, is against Congress candidate Sonal Patel.

Rahul Gandhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is contesting the elections from two seats – Wayanad, Kerala and Raebareli, UP. Gandhi lost the family bastion seat of Amethi in 2019 and entered the parliament from Wayanad.

Shashi Tharoor: A three-time MP from Thiruvananthapuram, capital of Kerala, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is facing challenge from BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar and CPI-M's Panniyan Ravindran.

Rajnath Singh: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is seeking a third term from Lucknow. The former Uttar Pradesh CM served as the Home Minister in BJP's first term and Defence Minister in the second term. Singh is facing SP candidate Ravidas Mehrotra and BSP candidate Sarwar Malik.

Abhishek Banerjee: TMC general secretary and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee is contesting from Diamond Harbour for a second term. Banerjee is pitted against CPI(M) candidate Pratikur Rahaman and BJP's Abhijit Das.

Akhilesh Yadav: Former Uttar UP and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav contesting from Kannauj. Yadav, who is an MLA from Karhal assembly constituency, is facing incumbent MP and BJP leader Subrat Pathak.

Asaduddin Owaisi: A four-time MP and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen chief, Asaduddin Owaisi is facing challenge from BJP candidate and actor-turned-politician Madhavi Latha in the Hyderabad constituency.

Trinamool Congress, according to NDTV, leads in 31 seats as per the early trends and BJP in 10 in West Bengal.

In the meantime, Indian stock markets crashed by nearly 4,000 points on Tuesday, after a sharp rally in the previous session, as early vote-counting trends showed Modi's BJP-led alliance leading in more than 272 seats, but the extent of the victory was not clear and its lead narrower than what exit polls had predicted, NDTV reports.

The BSE Sensex was down 5.07 per cent or 3,997 points at 72,684, while the NSE Nifty 50 was down 5.07 per cent or 1,178 points at 11.10 am.

Livemint reports, a sharp selloff in the Indian stock market resulted in a significant loss for investors, reducing their wealth by approximately ₹26 trillion in intraday trade on Tuesday, June 4. The overall market capitalisation (mcap) of companies listed on the BSE plummeted to nearly ₹400 trillion around 11:05 am India time on Tuesday against nearly ₹426 trillion at the previous session's close.

KL Sharma of Congress leading from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh with 109,492 votes. The Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Smriti Irani trails with 77,486 votes, as per latest ECI trends. Amethi was once a coveted seat for the Gandhis. However, it is the first time in 25 years that the Congress chose a non-Gandhi candidate to contest from here.

Meanwhile in Mandi of Himalchal Pradesh, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut of BJP continued her lead by a margin of 44,477 votes (with 3,20,863 votes) while Congress' Vikramaditya Singh was trailing with 2,76,386 votes. Vikramaditya Singh is heir of the Rampur royal family and son of the late Virbhadra Singh, a six-time Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh.

If Narendra Modi’s BJP falls short of a majority in the Lok Sabha at the final counts, the party could be left at mercy of its allies Janata Dal (United) and Telugu Desam Party, who are now leading on 30 seats together as per early trends, to come to power.

A party or coalition needs 272 seats to cross the majority mark in the 543-member lower house of parliament. In 2019 general elections, the BJP had won 303 seats alone while the NDA got 353 seats.

Under the circumstances, JD-U chief and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu can play kingmakers as both of them have a history switching sides between the BJP and the Congress.

Early trends show the JD-U was leading at 15 of the 40 seats of Bihar while the TDP was leading on 16 of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh.

Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani is trailing in Amethi by over 60,000 votes, according to The Hindu.

KL Sharma, known as a Gandhi family loyalist, used to handle the constituency office for Rae Bareli for Sonia Gandhi. He also handled the constituency office for Amethi in the early years of Rahul Gandhi’s membership of the Lok Sabha from there.

Though early leads gave the BJP-led NDA a hope in West Bengal, hope faded away with the rise in counts later in the day as Congress-led INDIA holds the leads in 32 out of 42 seats.

Mamata Banejee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), an ally of INDIA, appeared to maintain a dominant show and was leading in 31 of 42 Lok Sabha constituencies while the BJP was ahead in 10 and Congress one, as per early trends of the Election Commission.

Mohammed Badruddin Ajmal of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) is trailing in the northeastern state’s Dhubri constituency.

Rakibul Hussain of the Congress is leading there by nearly 43,000 votes, the Press Trust of India reports. Assam has a total of 14 Lok Sabha seats.

Ajmal, 74, is a businessman whose family founded the famous Ajmal Perfumes company. He is also a Muslim theologian and state president of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind for Assam, according to Al Jazeera.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has taken a slender lead of 925 votes in Thiruvananthapuram against Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

National Conference leader and former J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah has conceded defeat in Baramulla against independent candidate Engineer Rashid, Hindustan Times reports

“I think it’s time to accept the inevitable. Congratulations to Engineer Rashid for his victory in North Kashmir. 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 posted on X.

Frmer Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti also conceded defeat from Anantnag-Rajouri seat. The PDP chief is currently trailing in the seat by a by a margin of over 2.3 lakh votes with National Conference leader Mian Altaf Ahmed taking the lead.

"Respecting the verdict of the people, I thank my PDP workers and leaders for their hard work and support despite all the odds. My deepest gratitude to the people who voted for me. Winning and losing is part of the game and wont deter us from our path. Congratulations to Mian sahab for his victory," she said in a tweet.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is all set to secure a landslide victory over BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh from the Raebareli seat in Uttar Pradesh as vote counts are underway.

As per the latest ECI data, Rahul Gandhi was ahead in the high-profile seat with 360,914, while the BJP candidate was trailing with 159,870 ballots, according to media reports.

In his post on Facebook, Dinesh Pratap Singh said, "I served the people of Raebareli with great humility and hard work. However, if I have made any mistake in my thoughts, words or deeds during my service or have hurt anyone, then I seek forgiveness."

"I am very thankful to all well-wishers and party members who worked tirelessly and fought the election very well, but the decision was not in our hands. The public is the form of God, whatever mandate they give will always be accepted with respect," he added.

The Raebareli constituency was represented by Sonia Gandhi from 2004 to 2024 and is seen as the traditional pocket borough of the Gandhi-Nehru family.

Data from the ECI at 2.10 pm also indicates that he is set to retain his Wayanad, Kerala.

Asaduddin Owaisi, the four-time MP and president of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is poised to secure a comfortable fifth term from Hyderabad as he is currently leading by over 3,15,800 votes, trailing the BJP candidate Madhavi Latha, according to the current trends.

While Owaisi’s count stood at 621,587, Madhavi Latha secured 304,647 votes, and Congress candidate Mohammed Waliullah Samee, representing the INDIA bloc, received 57,385 votes, according to the ECI.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday reminded Narendra Modi a remark he made in 2016. With the vote counting for the Lok Sabha polls underway, the Congress leader took a swipe at the Prime Minister and asked him to “pick up his bag and head to the Himalayas”.

“On 3 December 2016 in Moradabad, the outgoing Prime Minister said - “What at the most can they do to me brother? No no, tell me, what can they do? I am a poor man, I will just pick up my bag and leave.” Do you remember this statement of yours, outgoing Prime Minister? The time has come. Take your bag and head towards the Himalayas,” the Congress leader said in a tweet.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was in first place on 38.1 per cent with three quarters of votes counted in India’s election, national election commission data showed Tuesday.

The BJP and its coalition allies were leading in at least 286 seats, the commission’s figures showed, above the 272 needed for a lower house parliamentary majority but significantly lower than their joint total of 353 after the last election in 2019, reports AFP.

BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar conceded defeat to Congress’ Shashi Tharoor in the Thiruvananthapuram seat as vote counting is going on in India’s Lok Sabha elections.

He, however, said that the results in Kerala indicate that people are increasingly supporting the BJP.

Speaking to PTI, Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Information Technology in the outgoing Cabinet, said that he was disappointed for his defeated.

India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his allies were heading for victory in the country’s general election count on Tuesday, but with a reduced parliamentary majority as the opposition surpassed expectations.

Commentators and exit polls had projected an overwhelming victory for Modi, whose campaign wooed the Hindu majority to the worry of the country’s 200-million-plus Muslim community, deepening concerns over minority rights.

But for the first time in a decade Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could fail to secure an overall majority of its own, figures from the election commission projected, meaning it would need to rely on its alliance partners.

The main opposition Congress party was set to nearly double its parliamentary seats, in a remarkable turnaround largely driven by deals to field single candidates against the BJP’s electoral juggernaut.

With just under 90 per cent of the votes counted, the BJP’s vote share at 37.3 per cent was marginally lower than it was in the last polls in 2019.

The election commission figures showed the BJP and its allies leading in at least 288 seats out of a total of 543, enough for a parliamentary majority.

But the BJP itself was only leading in 244, well down on the 303 it won five years ago, while the Congress was ahead in 99, up from 52.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was re-elected Tuesday to represent the constituency of Varanasi, election commission figures showed, marking his third victory in the Hindu holy city.

The election commission declared Modi elected with 612,970 votes, more than 152,000 ahead of the nearest of his six rivals.

Bollywood star Kangana Ranaut, the BJP candidate from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, beat rival Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh by a margin of over 74,000 votes in the 18th Lok Sabha elections.

As per ECI, Kangana Ranaut garnered 537,022 votes with Vikramaditya Singh bagged 462,267 votes.

The BJP, which won the majority seats on its own in the last two Lok Sabha elections, is faltering this time, show vote counting trends. The party may require help from its allies to get to 272 - the majority mark to form a government at the Centre.

“The heart is happy,” said Omar Abdullah, who lost his own election. He further said that the BJP will now have to run a coalition government.

Top opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was re-elected to India’s parliament by a margin of more than 364,000 in the southern constituency of Wayanad, according to the Election Commission of India figures.

Rahul Gandhi bagged 647,445 votes and beat his nearest rival Annie Raja of Communist Party of India (CPI) who got 283,023 votes

Gandhi ran for two seats in this year’s Lok Sabha poll, a strategy legal under Indian election law, and also had an unassailable lead of more than 389,000 votes for the seat of Rae Bareli in the country’s north.

Speaking to the media, the Congress scion said he was not sure which constituency he would retain.

The results of the Lok Sabha election are a “political and moral defeat for PM Modi”, said Congress chief Mallikarjun Khadge. “Win for the people. Win for democracy. This was a fight between Modi and the people. We humbly accept the results. The people have not given a majority to any party. It is clear that the mandate is against PM Modi. It is a political and moral defeat for PM Modi since the BJP sought votes in his name.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi must resign, asserted Mamata Banerjee. “He should resign since he has lost all credibility. BJP and PM Modi were too proud and that is harmful, said Mamata Banerjee after her Trinamool routed the BJP in Bengal.

He had said “400 paar”, but is now falling to the feet of TDP. The BJP won’t be able to pass laws as per their whims. Akhilesh Yadav said they are not giving certificates even after winning so some seats can be increased for the BJP,” he said.

The West Bengal chief minister further said, “It’s all the people’s work, not ours. Without a two-third majority, you can’t amend the Constitution. I don’t feel bad over the losses we suffered. I congratulate them for showing courage. The EC acted as BJP Commission, as a voice of BJP. The Commission wants to increase the BJP seats.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the mandate “a historic feat”.

“People have placed their faith in NDA, for a third consecutive time! This is a historic feat in India’s history. I bow to the janata janardan for this affection and assure them that we will continue the good work done in the last decade to keep fulfilling the aspirations of people. I also salute all our karyakartas for their hard work. Words will never do justice to their exceptional efforts,” he wrote on X.

After a neck-and-neck fight, Congress incumbent MP Shashi Tharoor has won Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat against BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar for a record fourth term.

The Congress incumbent MP won the seat by a margin of over 16,077 votes. Tharoor said that the BJP put up an enormous fight and described it as a super over condition.

“This is a blessing for the fourth time, and I will do my best to be worthy of that trust to serve them well. The world T20 is going on, but the super over was here. The BJP put up an enormous fight. One important message from Suresh Gopi in Thrissur is that his systematic outreach to minority communities. It is a very strong message to the BJP that a communal campaign won’t go very far in Kerala,” Tharoor said.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar expressed his disappointment over the loss but affirmed his commitment to the people of Thiruvananthapuram.

“It is disappointing given that we worked very hard. We ran a very positive campaign. 340,000 people supported us, which is a record number. I believe we are on the right track. I am disappointed that I could not win. My commitment to Thiruvananthapuram and its people remains steadfast,” Rajeev said.

Thiruvananthapuram went to the polls on April 26 and recorded a voter turnout of 66.46 per cent.

Congress leader Tharoor has maintained a winning streak from 2009 to 2019 in this seat.

As none of the major parties has received a full majority in the Lok Sabha elections with counting almost coming to an end, the Congress party will hold discussions with its allies as well as “new partners,” party president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Tuesday.

He said that the “fight” is not over, and they will continue to work for people’s rights and protection of the Constitution and democracy, reports news agency ANI.

This comes after the BJP failed to cross the majority mark on its own. According to the Election Commission of India, BJP is currently ahead on 239 seats. But, the overall tally of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is close to 300.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Kharge said, “I thank our INDIA bloc partners. Everyone campaigned for each other and worked. Our fight hasn’t reached its conclusion, we have to keep fighting for people’s rights, the protection of the Constitution and democracy, the nation’s development and safety on the border.”

“The coming days are going to be important and we will talk as soon as possible,” he said.

On being asked about the meeting with INDIA bloc partners, Kharge said that Congress will hold talks with its alliance partners as well as “new partners” who are “going to ally” with them.

“Till we don’t talk to our alliance partners and the new partners who are going to ally with them, we will talk to them as well and see how we can make a majority. If I talk about all the strategies here, Modiji will become clever,” the Congress president said.

The Congress president lauded the party’s campaign and said they continued to raise the issues of the people, despite the “government machinery” working against them.

He also said that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra formed the foundation of the party’s campaign.

“Congress and the INDIA bloc fought the elections positively, government machinery tried to create hurdles for us, our accounts were frozen, ran cases against our leaders. But, still, we continued to raise the issue of farmers, labourers, inflation, unemployment and misuse of central agencies. People in huge numbers joined us. Both the yatras of Rahul Gandhi became the foundation of our campaign. We gave our 5 Nyays and 25 Guarantees for our campaign,” Kharge said.

“People realised that if PM Modi gets another term, the next attack will be on the Constitution and democracy of the country. It is fortunate that the BJP won’t succeed in their purpose now,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) crossed the majority mark in early leads and is ahead on around 300 seats, while the INDIA bloc, defying all predictions is leading on over 230 seats.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced results of 434 constituencies as of 10:00 pm local time in the 18th Lok Sabha elections.

Of them, governing BJP won in 207 seats while the party is leading in 33 more seats and Congress won in 80 seats and leading in another 19 constituencies, reported The Hindu quoting the ECI data.

Among the other parties, Samajwadi Party won 33 seats, DMK 10 seats and All India Trinamool Congress won 23 seats.

The results reveal that BJP cannot form government on their own without any help of coalition members.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, BJP scored a huge victory with 303 seats on their own, while the BJP-led NDA got necessary 272 seats.

The final count for India’s Lok Sabha 2024 elections has concluded, with the BJP winning 240 seats, far fewer than had been expected, however, prevailing over the Opposition, Congress, which won 99 seats.

Narendra Modi has secured a third term, but the BJP will be at mercy of the coalition members - JD (U) chief Nitish Kumar and TDP's chief Chandrababu Naidu, falling 32 seats short of the 272 majority mark - a stunning blow for the PM, who had hoped for a landslide victory '400 paar'.

With counting ended in Lok Sabha polls, the BJP-led NDA won 293 seats while the opposition INDIA did better than expected bagging 232 seats and other candidates secured 18 seats.

Follwoing s are the breakdown of which party won in how many seats as per the ECI data.