Election Results: NDA Surges Ahead In Early Trends; BJP’s Pradeep Purohit Takes Lead For Odisha’s Bargarh LS Seat

New Delhi: The counting of votes is underway for Lok Sabha elections 2024. The initial trends indicated leads for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on over 295 seats while the Congress-led INDIA bloc was a distant second, ahead on over 165 seats. The counting of votes began starting with postal ballot papers amid tight security.

In Odisha, BJP candidate Pradeep Purohit has taken the lead from the Bargarh Lok Sabha seat and Jayant Sarangi is leading from the Puri Assembly seat.

In Bengal, at 9.15 am the BJP coalition was ahead in 21 and the Trinamool was leading in 18 seats.

The Congress’ Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was leading in Bahrampur (one of two seats the party won in 2019) and the BJP’s Sukunta Majumdar was ahead in Balurghat.

In Delhi, the BJP, which won all seven Delhi Lok Sabha seats both in 2014 and 2019, is leading in six seats in the national capital. The AAP is leading in one seat.

In Karnataka, the BJP-led NDA has surged ahead in early trends. About an hour after counting began, the NDA was heading in 22 out of 28 seats and the INDIA Opposition bloc in three. While the BJP is contesting 22 out of 25 seats in Karnataka, the JDS is fighting on three, including Hassan on which Prajwal Revanna is the candidate. The Congress, which is in power in the state, is fighting alone.

It’s a close contest in Maharashtra between the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the opposition INDIA bloc as votes are counted for the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The INDIA alliance is currently leading on 24 seats, while the NDA is ahead on 19.