Samajwadi Party’s jump from five Lok Sabha seats in 2019 to pole position five years later marks a stunning comeback against all expectations, with the bonus of an all-round performance spanning all four regions of this vast and diverse state. Akhilesh Yadav’s party won 37 seats out of a total of 80 Lok Sabha seats.
Read full storyNarendra Modi won Varanasi Lok Sabha seat by defeating INDIA bloc candidate and UP Congress chief Ajay Rai, but the 1.5-lakh-vote victory margin on Tuesday marked the closest contest he has faced since 2014, and a steep fall from 2019 when he won by 4.8 lakh votes.
Read full storyIn the ongoing tally of votes for the Lok Sabha 2024 elections, Bhojpuri superstars Ravi Kishan, Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua', and Pawan Singh experienced a mixed bag of results.
Ravi Kishan, known for his roles in films like "Laapataa Ladies", secured victory in the Gorakhpur constituency under the BJP banner. He clinched the win against fellow Bhojpuri actress Kajal Nishad, who contested as the joint candidate of the INDIA bloc.
Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh Yadav, has emerged victorious from the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat, while Akhilesh and three other members of the Yadav family are leading comfortably, according to the Election Commission's latest data.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) had fielded five members of the Yadav clan in the Lok Sabha elections.
Akhilesh Yadav holds a substantial lead of 1,70,076 votes over BJP's Subrat Pathak in Kannauj, as per the figures available on the EC's website at 7 pm.
Dimple secured victory from the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat with a convincing margin of 2,21,639 votes, defeating her nearest rival, BJP's Jaiveer Singh. She garnered 5,98,526 votes, while Singh received 3,76,887 votes. BSP candidate Shiv Prasad Yadav secured 66,814 votes.
In Azamgarh, SP's Dharmendra Yadav maintains a lead of 1,61,035 votes over BJP's Dinesh Lal Yadav 'Nirahua', while in Firozabad, party leader Ram Gopal Yadav's son Akshay Yadav leads by 89,312 votes against BJP's Vishwadeep Singh.
In Badaun, SP leader Shivpal Yadav's son Aditya Yadav leads BJP's Durvijay Singh Shakya by 35,252 votes, as of 7 pm. Initially, the party had nominated Shivpal for this seat, but later replaced him with his son Aditya.
As the Lok Sabha election vote count progresses, several BJP leaders, including Smriti Irani, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Ajay Mishra Teni, and Arjun Munda, find themselves trailing their opponents, leading to disappointing results for the BJP-led NDA.
Former Amethi MP Smriti Irani, who famously defeated Rahul Gandhi in 2019, is currently trailing Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma by over 1.39 lakh votes. Sharma, a trusted aide of the Gandhi family, has garnered significant support in the constituency.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni, whose son's involvement in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence stirred controversy, is also trailing behind Samajwadi Party's Utkarsh Sharma by more than 33,000 votes. The SP, in alliance with the Congress, has posed a formidable challenge in Uttar Pradesh.
In Jharkhand's Khunti Lok Sabha constituency, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda is facing a setback as he trails Congress candidate Kalicharan Munda by over 1.28 lakh votes, according to the latest updates from the Election Commission.
In Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar is lagging behind three-time MP Shashi Tharoor of the Congress by over 15,000 votes. Despite leading initially, Chandrasekhar's position has weakened as the counting progresses.
The BJP's stronghold states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan are witnessing significant losses, though the party is expected to secure around 290 seats nationally.
However, the BJP's individual performance appears to be falling short of the majority mark, with leads in only 242 seats, despite making gains in states like Odisha, Telangana, and Kerala. Meanwhile, the INDIA bloc, formed in opposition to the BJP, is leading in approximately 230 seats.
The actual results are starkly different from the optimistic predictions of a "400-paar" victory by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and "370-paar" for the BJP. The exit poll forecasts, which anticipated a decisive victory for the NDA, have been contradicted by the unfolding election results.
As the counting of votes is underway for the 18th Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is contesting from Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi is leading with 152355 votes.
On the other hand, Congress' Ajay Rai has garnered 403382 votes.
Uttar Pradesh Congress chief and candidate from Varanasi, Ajay Rai asserted that the exit polls released after the conclusion of the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections were fabricated.
He said, "I had said yesterday too that the exit poll was concocted, to mislead people and create mental pressure. We are connected to the ground reality, I had said that the INDIA alliance will give results and the outcome is before everyone."
Expressing confidence in the victory, Rai said, "INDIA alliance is going to form the government in the country and the alliance is winning with a huge majority. We will also win Varanasi."