New Delhi: The Election Commission of India has announced the results for 542 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has secured 240 seats, while the Congress has increased its tally to 99 seats. The outcome for the Beed constituency in Maharashtra remains pending, with NCP candidate Bajrang Manohar Sonwane leading over BJP's Pankaja Munde.
Although the Lok Sabha comprises 543 members, elections were conducted for 542 seats since BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal from Surat was elected unopposed.
With early results declared on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to lead the government for a third consecutive term. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) achieved a majority in the Lok Sabha despite significant losses in three key Hindi heartland states. The election, seen as a referendum on Modi's leadership, saw the BJP win 240 seats. This is below the 272 seats required for an outright majority, unlike their previous victories in 2019 and 2014 where they secured 303 and 282 seats, respectively.
However, the NDA is expected to surpass the majority mark with support from allies such as N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which won 16 seats in Andhra Pradesh, and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)], which secured 12 seats in Bihar, along with other coalition partners.
The Congress, as part of the opposition INDIA bloc, made notable gains by securing 99 seats, up from 52 in 2019. This improvement impacted the BJP’s performance in states like Rajasthan and Haryana. In Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party bolstered the INDIA bloc by winning 37 seats, while the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal increased its tally to 29 seats, compared to 22 in 2019. The BJP's count in West Bengal dropped to 12 seats from the 18 it had previously won.
Despite hopes and exit poll predictions, the BJP-led NDA did not achieve the landslide victory it anticipated.
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