Proving exit polls right, the BJP led by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Thursday appeared set to retain power as its candidates aloneled in 294 of the 541 Lok Sabha seats with its allies faring equally wellacross the country, stunning the opposition.
The BJP made stunning inroads in West Bengal where itscandidates were ahead in 15 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats while the rulingTrinamool Congress was on the top in 25 places. The BJP had won only two seatsin 2014. The Congress led in one place while the Left, which ruled the statefor decades, faced a washout.
Good news for the BJP poured in from almost all parts of theHindi heartland and even beyond including Uttar Pradesh, where the SP-BSPalliance was expected to trip its path to victory, as well as Bihar, Gujaratand Maharashtra besides the Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh and in Karnataka where the Congress-JD-S are in power.
In Uttar Pradesh, which elects 80 members to the Lok Sabha,the BJP led in a whopping 57 constituencies, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and theBahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 8 and 11 seats respectively.
BJP candidates were on the victory path on all 26 seats inGujarat, 24 of the 25 seats in Rajasthan, 28 of the 29 seas in Madhya Pradeshand 9 of the 11 seats in Chhattisgarh, virtually ending Congress dreams ofunseating Modi and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Bihar too proved lucky for the BJP which led in 15 of the 37seats while its allies Janata Dal-United (JD-U) also led in 15 constituenciesand Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) in 5, puncturing the Grand Alliance led by theRJD.
A see-saw battle raged in Amethi between BJP’s Smriti Iraniand Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who was again trailing after taking aslight edge earlier. But Gandhi was guaranteed a victory in Wayanad in Keralawhere he led by over 1 lakh votes over his Left rival.
The BJP led in 23 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra and itsally Shiv Sena on 19, dealing a major blow to the Congress-NCP alliance.
The BJP’s best news in southern India came in Karnatakawhere its candidates led in 23 of the 26 seats, shocking the Congress-JanataDal-S alliance which rules the state.
The BJP leaders who were on the victory lap included Modi(Varanasi), Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), Union Minister ManekaGandhi (Sultanpur), Union Minister Giriraj Singh (Begusarai) and Sadhvi PragyaSingh Thakur (Bhopal).
UPA Chairperson and senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi ledin Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.
The TRS was leading in 11 seats in Telangana and the YSRCongress Party in 24 in Andhra Pradesh. The TDP was ahead in only one seat inAndhra Pradesh.
The DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu was leading in 22 of the39 seats while the Congress was on the top in Punjab.
The best news for the Congress came from Kerala where itscandidates were leading in 15 of the 20 Lok Sabha seats.
Officials on Thursday morning began counting the millions ofvotes cast in the Lok Sabha elections across the country whose verdict willdetermine who gets to rule India for the next five years.
Around 67 per cent of the nearly 900 million voters exercisedtheir franchise in the seven-phase elections that began on April 11 and endedon May 19.
Election in Vellore in Tamil Nadu was countermanded by theElection Commission.