New Delhi: Counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections began on Tuesday morning across states and Union Territories.While the Lok Sabha has 543 members, counting is being held for 542 seats after the BJP's Surat candidate Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed. The early trends showed that BJP-led NDA is leading.
Counting of votes is also underway for the assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, where polling was held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections.
Elections to the assemblies of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim were also held alongside the Lok Sabha polls. The results of these elections were declared on June 2.
According to the Conduct of Election Rules, postal ballots will be counted first and the process of counting of votes recorded in electronic voting machines (EVMs) will begin 30 minutes later.The process of counting votes cast through postal ballots and EVMs will continue simultaneously.
Since 2019, VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) slips from five randomly selected polling stations per assembly constituency -- or segment in case of Lok Sabha seats -- are matched with the EVM count for greater transparency.The Exit Polls have predicted a strong show by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a setback for the opposition's INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha elections.
Roughly seven Exit Polls have projected approximately 350-370 seats for the BJP-led NDA in the 543-member Lok Sabha. They also indicated that the INDIA bloc might end up with around 107-140 seats, falling significantly short of the majority mark of 272 seats.
Three Exit Polls -- India Today-My Axis India, India TV-CNX, and News24-Todays Chanakya -- forecast that the NDA would secure over 400 seats.
Many other Exit Polls indicated a significant victory for the BJP in Congress-ruled Karnataka, while the India TV-CNX poll suggested that the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP and the NDA are poised to sweep the polls in Andhra Pradesh.
The Exit Poll findings were released on Saturday evening, immediately after the conclusion of the seventh and final phase of polling.
Prime Minister Modi and the BJP have expressed confidence that the party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will achieve a historic victory by securing more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha.
Meanwhile, the Congress is claiming that the INDIA bloc, a coalition of over 25 opposition parties, is poised to secure victory in the elections with more than 295 seats.
The opposition parties have instructed their counting agents to closely oversee the vote-counting process on Tuesday, emphasising the importance of obtaining Form 17C, which includes the tally of votes registered at each polling station. Also on Tuesday, the counting of votes for the Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, along with by-elections to different Assembly constituencies, will be taken up.
The general elections were held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1.
(With agency inputs)
