New Delhi:
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is set to return to power riding the massive Modi wave across most parts of the country. As per the trends available for the 542 seats which went to polls, the BJP alone is leading on 292 seats while the Congress is left a distant second with just 50 seats.
Stay tuned to News Nation to get latest updates on Lok Sabha election results 2019:
Here is the 10:40 AM report on trends/results of the Lok Sabha elections 2019:
BJP+: 349 | Congress: 86 | Others: 107
If the trends stay until final results, the BJP would have improved on its 2014 performance when it had won 282 seats on its own in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
The results are a resounding endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity, his government's achievements in the last five years and his campaign, which centred around national security and nationalism. He also relentlessly attacked the Congress Party for what he called its dynastic legacy, and blamed it for the country's woes. The opposition had criticised the BJP campaign as divisive and polarising.
Still, the trend shows that the Modi wave, along with party president Amit Shah's strategic brains, swept across geographies, caste lines, age, gender and economic status. Shah was leading in Gandhinagar in Gujarat by more than 3 lakh votes. The BJP is set to repeat its 2014 showing in Modi's home state when it had won all 26 seats.
In the politically critical state of Uttar Pradesh, where the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party combine had posed a stiff challenge, the BJP was leading in 57 of the 80 seats at stake. The SP was ahead in eight and BSP in 11. Although the BJP had won 71 seats in the last elections, the performance is much better than what many exit polls had forecast.
The Congress Party was ahead only in one seat in Uttar Pradesh. Even, Congress President Rahul Gandhi was trailing BJP's Smriti Irani in Amethi by nearly 7,000 votes but was clearly ahead in Wayanad in Kerala with a lead of more than 1 lakh votes.
The Modi wave not only swept through the Hindi heartland and Gujarat, as was expected, but also rippled through West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Only Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh appeared untouched. Even in Telangana, where it was expected to fare poorly, the BJP was ahead in four seats, the same as the Telangana Rashtra Samiti.
The trends were staggering for BJP in the Hindi-speaking states, including those where Congress had won in the recent Assembly elections. In Madhya Pradesh, BJP was ahead in 28 out of 29 seats with a vote percentage of nearly 60. In Rajasthan it was leading in all but one of 25 seats. Similarly in Chattisgarh, BJP was ahead in nine compared to Congress' 2 seats. Haryana also is expected to send nine BJP MPs out of 10.
