The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to be the single largest party in the India elections, but the opposition has made significant gains. Despite the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) facing disappointing results in many areas, the BJP is expected to form the government with around 290 seats. However, it is falling below the majority mark on its own, with leads in 242 seats.
Several Union ministers, including Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Ajay Mishra Teni, and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, were trailing their opponents as of 4 pm IST (11.30 am UK time) on Tuesday. Irani, who previously defeated Rahul Gandhi in Amethi in 2019, was trailing Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma by over 1.39 lakh votes.
Ajay Mishra Teni was trailing the Samajwadi Party's Utkarsh Sharma by over 33,000 votes, and Arjun Munda was behind Congress candidate Kalicharan Munda by over 1.28 lakh votes. Rajeev Chandrasekhar was trailing Congress's Shashi Tharoor by over 15,000 votes in Thiruvananthapuram.
Prime minister Narendra Modi won the Varanasi seat for the third consecutive term, defeating Congress candidate Ajay Rai by a margin of 1,52,513 votes. This victory margin is less than his previous margins in 2019 and 2014.
In some notable victories, Indore's incumbent MP Shankar Lalwani topped the chart with a winning margin of over 11.72 lakh votes. Home Minister Amit Shah, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, and CR Patil also had significant leads. Congress's Rakibul Hussain led in Dhubri, Assam, by over 7.36 lakh votes.
On the other hand, radical Sikh preacher Amritpal Singh and Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, son of Indira Gandhi's assassin, were leading in their respective constituencies of Khadoor Sahib and Faridkot in Punjab. Both contested as Independents, with Singh leading by over 1.44 lakh votes and Khalsa leading by over 60,000 votes.
The BJP appears to be losing heavily in its strongholds of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Rajasthan but has made gains in Odisha, Telangana, and Kerala. The INDIA bloc, an opposition coalition, was leading in about 230 seats, challenging the BJP's dominance. The final numbers are expected to be far short of the BJP's ambitious predictions.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi registered a massive win in Uttar Pradesh’s Raebareli, continuing his mother’s legacy of securing the party’s traditional stronghold five times. Tuesday's numbers showed Gandhi defeating the BJP’s Dinesh Pratap Singh by over three lakh votes, a higher margin than his mother’s victory in 2019.
According to the Election Commission of India, which has not officially declared Gandhi’s win, the Congress MP was ahead of Singh by more than 3.8 lakh votes.
Union home minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah secured a landslide victory in the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat, with an unassailable lead of over seven lakh votes against his nearest rival, Congress's Sonal Ramanbhai Patel.
Latest Election Commission data showed Shah received 1,10,972 votes, while Patel garnered 2,66,256 votes.
BJP's K Annamalai, an engineer-turned-IPS officer, contested from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. However, counting trends showed Annamalai, making his poll debut, trailing by over 51,000 votes behind DMK candidate Ganapthy Rajkumar P.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Vikramaditya Singh lost to Kangana Ranaut, who made her debut on the BJP ticket this election. The vote margin in this Himachal Pradesh seat was over 74,000. Vikramaditya Singh is the son of six-time Himachal chief minister late Virbhadra Singh and sitting MP Pratibha Singh.
In a surprising result, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leader Omar Abdullah conceded defeat to Independent candidate Abdul Rashid Sheikh. Omar Abdullah, former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, was trailing by over two lakh votes.
Trinamool's Mahua Moitra, seeking re-election from West Bengal's Krishnanagar seat, is leading against BJP candidate Amrita Roy. According to the Election Commission of India, Moitra is ahead by 57,083 votes.
(With PTI inputs)
Dharavi slum in Mumbai
During the hearing, Clifford denied all the charges except for the rape charge, which was added to the indictment at the session. (Photo: Hertfordshire Police /Handout via REUTERS)
Man pleads not guilty to murder of BBC presenter's family
A 26-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering the wife and two daughters of BBC sports commentator John Hunt in a crossbow and knife attack.
Kyle Clifford, who also faces charges of rape, appeared via video link at Cambridge Crown Court on Thursday.
Clifford, arrested in July after a manhunt, is charged with three counts of murder, one count each of rape and false imprisonment, and two counts of possessing offensive weapons – a 10-inch knife and a crossbow.
During the hearing, Clifford denied all the charges except for the rape charge, which was added to the indictment at the session.
He is expected to enter a plea for that charge at a later date.
The victims were Carol Hunt, 61, wife of horseracing commentator John Hunt, and their daughters Louise, 25, and Hannah, 28.
An earlier hearing revealed that Louise had been found tied up and that both she and her sister had been shot with a crossbow, while their mother had been stabbed with a knife.
The fatal attack occurred at the family’s home in Bushey, a commuter town near Watford, northwest of London.
(With inputs from AFP)