Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat as the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA crosses the halfway mark in early trends. As the counting of votes for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is underway, Times Now and News18 reported the NDA’s strong performance.
The BJP-led NDA is ahead in more than 300 parliamentary seats, while the opposition INDIA bloc leads in 170, according to Times Now. News18 reports the NDA leading in 293 seats and the INDIA bloc in 192, while NDTV shows NDA ahead in 281 seats with the INDIA bloc trailing with 197.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar confirmed that vote counting has begun across states and Union Territories. Postal ballots were counted first, followed by votes recorded in electronic voting machines (EVMs) after a 30-minute interval. This process will continue simultaneously.
The Lok Sabha, which has 543 members, is seeing counting for 542 seats since BJP’s Surat candidate Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed. Simultaneous counting is also underway for assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, held alongside the Lok Sabha elections. Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim assembly election results were declared on June 2.
Since 2019, VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) slips from five randomly selected polling stations per assembly constituency are matched with the EVM count for greater transparency.
As the final phase of counting unfolds, the focus remains on the leading NDA coalition and the INDIA bloc’s performance.
