Election Results 2019 Live: Modi Set For Second Term As Rahul Gandhi Concedes Defeat

Narendra Modi is poised to get a second term as India’s prime minister with counting trends indicating a simple majority for the BJP.

Latest trends showed the BJP is leading on 300 seats. This is the first time since 1984 that a political party has amassed 300 seats on its own. The Congress, led by Rajiv Gandhi, won 414 seats that year riding a sympathy wave following Indira Gandhi's assassination. The BJP that year was reduced to just two Lok Sabha seats.

Modi himself is leading at his Varanasi seat in Uttar Pradesh, while Rahul Gandhi is leading in Wayanad. The Congress party leader, however, is trailing Smriti Irani in Amethi.

The incumbent NDA alliance is ahead in 342 seats while UPA is leading in 94 seats as of 3:40 p.m. The BJP by itself, has leads in 300 seats while Congress is leading in 55 seats.

In general elections 2014, the BJP crossed the 272 mark comfortably on its own, without allies, winning a majority of 282 seats - a gain of 166 compared to the previous general election.

Congress could only manage 44 seats, suffering one of its worst defeats ever. Since then, Congress party President Rahul Gandhi has worked towards rebuilding the party and forming alliances across the nations, in an effort to defeat the Amit Shah-led BJP.

U.S. President Donald Trump says "great things" are in store for the two countries.

Modi has removed the Chowkidar prefix from his Twitter handle saying now is the time to take that spirit to the next level.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi said that they will accept the people's verdict with humility.

“Today it doesn't matter what I think is wrong. What matters is that the people of India have decided that Narendra Modi should be Prime Minister. And as an Indian I fully respect that,” Gandhi said in a press conference.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were among the global leaders who congratulated Modi as he looked set to return to power.

President Xi extended "heartfelt" congratulations to Prime Minister Modi on his election victory and vowed to work with him to take the bilateral ties to a new height. “I attach great importance to the development of China-India relations and would like to work with you to guide the development directions of the bilateral relations, enhance mutual political trust, expand pragmatic cooperation and promote the closer developmental partnership between the two countries to a new height,” Xi wrote in a letter to Modi, according to PTI.

Putin congratulated Modi on the convincing victory of his party in the elections and expressed his readiness to work together to build up the full range of bilateral relations.

“I am convinced that, as the Prime Minister of India, you will further strengthen the centuries-old friendship between our peoples and the all-round development of a particularly privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India,” Putin said in a congratulatory message.

Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo called Prime Minister Modi and congratulated him for the resounding victory of his party in the elections. During the conversation, both leaders noted the advances made in the bilateral relationship in the last five years and reiterated their commitment towards further strengthening ties, PTI reported.

Netanyahu congratulated Modi and vowed to strengthen their "great friendship" as well as bilateral ties.

“The election results are a re-approval of your leadership and the way you lead the world's greatest democracy. Together we will continue to strengthen the great friendship between us and India and Israel and lead it to new heights,” Netanyahu tweeted in Hebrew, Hindi and English.

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani congratulated Modi on a strong mandate and said the government and the people of Afghanistan look forward to expanding cooperation between the two democracies in pursuit of regional cooperation, peace and prosperity for all of South Asia.

Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli congratulated his Indian counterpart and hoped to work closely with him in future. “I extend warmest congratulations to Prime Minister @narendramodi ji for landslide election victory in the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. I wish all success ahead. I look forward to working closely with you,” he tweeted.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and main Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa congratulated Prime Minister Modi on his victory in the elections. “Congratulations on your victory and the people's re-endorsement of you leadership,” Sirisena tweeted.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina congratulated her Modi on his election victory and said this "emphatic verdict is a reflection of the trust and confidence reposed" by the people.

Bhutan's Prime Minister Lotay Tshering offered heartiest congratulations to Prime Minister Modi and said he looks forward to working closely with him in years to come.

With inputs from PTI

Pakistan Prime Minister Minister Imran Khan has said that he will look forward to woring with Modi for “peace, progress and prosperity”.

Last month, Khan had also said that there would be a better chance of peace between the neighbouring countries if the BJP came back to power.

Prime Minister Modi took to Twitter to celebrate the BJP leading in more than half of the Lok Sabha seats.

BJP president Amit Shah welcomed the mandate as latest trends show the NDA leading in 347 seats, on Twitter. Of the 347 leads, the BJP alone is ahead on 298 seats.

Him, Along with Up Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath congratulated Prime Minister Modi on the election results.

Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the two will “continue to strengthen our great friendship”.

Indian equity benchmarks wiped out morning’s rally to milestone during the last hour trade.

The fall in benchmark indices comes amid Lok Sabha election counting suggested second-term for Narendra Modi as India’s prime minister.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended over 1,300 points lower from day’s high to close at 38,811.39 and the NSE Nifty 50 ended at 11,657.05, down 0.69 percent. The broader market index represented by the NSE Nifty 500 Index closed 0.47 percent lower.

Follow the day’s trading action on BloombergQuint’s live market blog

BJP is leading in all 10 seats in Haryana, with 58.5 percent of the vote share.

Even before noon today, leaders of some of India’s largest companies congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party on an expected victory in elections 2019.

Here are some of the tweets so far:

While Anand Mahindra, Chairman Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. did not congratulate the party, he did tweet this out.

The BJP is leading in all 26 seats in Gujarat, with 62 percent vote share. The Congress' vote share stands at 32 percent.

Modi’s party had come out victorious in all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2014 general elections.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi is trailing the Bharatiya Janata Party's Smriti Irani in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, but is ahead in Wayanad, Kerala, latest trends from the Election Commission for the 2019 Lok Sabha election results showed.

Smriti Irani is ahead of Rahul Gandhi by more than 14,000 votes, latest data showed. He is ahead of CPI’s PP Suneer by over 7 lakh votes in Wayanad.

Gandhi had defeated Irani by more than 1 lakh votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

This was the first time Gandhi stepped out of the Congress bastion of Amethi to contest from a second seat in Wayanad—a move that was attacked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the election campaigning.

Congress, however, had said that Gandhi chose to contest from Wayanad to fight the “discriminatory attitude” of the BJP towards the southern states in India.

The Wayanad seat, formed in 2009, is considered a stronghold of the Congress party. The seat was won by former Kerala Congress President MI Shanawaz in 2009 and 2014 and fell vacant after he died in 2018.

Early trends for Tamil Nadu election results showed that the Congress-led UPA is leading in 35 seats. The BJP and AIADMK are leading in three seats, EC data showed.

This is the first time the state had faced an election since the deaths of regional stalwarts J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi. The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the ruling party in the state, teamed up with the BJP. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam contested along with the Indian National Congress, its long-time ally.

What Happened In 2014?

AIADMK, which contested the election alone, bagged 37 of the total 39 constituencies. BJP won one seat—Kanyakumari, bagged by Pon Radhakrishnan, who became the minister of state for road transport and highways. Anbumani Ramadoss of Paatali Makkal Katchi, a BJP ally, retained his Dharmapuri seat.

AIADMK accounted for 44.9 percent of the total votes polled. DMK drew a blank despite getting the second largest share of votes.

Latest trends for Maharashtra election results show that the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance is leading in 41 out of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state while the Congress and its allies is ahead in 6 seats.

Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress has lost ground as the BJP has made its mark in West Bengal.

The TMC is leading in 22 seats in West Bengal as of 3:40 p.m., with the NDA not far behind with a lead in 19 seats.

• In Asansol, BJP's Babul Supriyo is ahead of TMC's Moon Moon Sen by 1 lakh votes.
• In Dum Dum, TMC's Sougata Ray is leading BJP's Samik Bhattacharya by over 50,000 votes.
• In Srerampur, Kalyan Banerjee of the TMC is ahead of BJP’s Debjit Sarkar by 75,000 votes.

The Congress is leading in one.

West Bengal was expected to witness a tough contest as the BJP canvassed the region to wrest power from the TMC. Four exit polls predicted the BJP to make a dent in Banerjee’s seat tally.

What Happened In 2014

The TMC had won 34 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, with a vote share of 39.79 percent. The Congress was a distant second with four seats and 9.69 percent vote share. While the Left had 25.32 percent vote share, the BJP had 17.02 percent. Both the parties bagged two seats each.

The grand alliance between historical rivals SP and BSP has failed to make a dent in BJP's fortunes in Uttar Pradesh.

BJP and its ally Apna Dal are ahead on 59 out of 80 Lok Sabha seats in the key state while the SP-BSP alliance has seen its at 20 seats.

BJP's Smriti Irani is on course to trump Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has gained a lead of more than 1.2 lakh votes over her closest rival, election commission data shows.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Varanasi), union home minister Rajnath Singh (Lucknow) and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav (Azamgarh) are all leading in their respective constituencies, EC data showed. BJP's Menaka Gandhi (Sultanpur), Varun Gandhi (Pilibhit) and BJP's Jaya Prada are also leading.

A poll of exit polls has indicated a climbdown for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh from 2014. The Narendra Modi-led party is expected to win 52 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP, while the SP-BSP alliance is likely to bag 26.

Individual exit polls, however, varied widely. India Today-Axis Poll and Times Now-VMR predicted the BJP to win 62-68 seats in the state and the SP-BSP alliance to get 10-16 seats. On the other hand, Republic TV-CVoter and ABP-Nielsen expected the SP-BSP alliance to bag 40-45 seats and the BJP to get 33-38 seats.

What Happened In 2014?

The BJP, led by Narendra Modi and trusted aide Amit Shah, won 71 seats in Uttar Pradesh. While its ally Apna Dal bagged two seats, the SP and the Congress got five and two seats, respectively. The BSP drew a blank despite having the third-highest vote share of 19.60 percent. The BJP accounted for 42.30 percent of the votes polled, while the SP and Congress had 22.20 percent and 7.50 percent share, respectively.

One of the many key fights in Uttar Pradesh is that between Congress’ Sonia Gandhi and Dinesh Pratap Singh (BJP), where Gandhi is currently leading.

Early trends for Jharkhand election results showed the BJP and its allies are ahead in 11 out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state while the Congress-led UPA is leading in three seats, as of 10:25 a.m.

Congress' Kriti Azad (Dhanbad), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's Shibu Soren (Dumka) and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha's Babu Lal Marandi (Kodarma) are trailing BJP candidates in their respective constituencies. However, BJP's Arjun Munda (Khunti) is trailing, EC data showed.

Soren, Marandi and Munda are former chief ministers of Jharkhand.

Early trends for Assam election results showed the BJP and its allies are ahead in 10 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state while the Congress is leading in just one seat, as of 12: 56 p.m.

Trends for Telangana election results show that chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samithi is ahead on 8 out of 16 Lok Sabha seats in the state while the BJP is leading in four seats. The UPA is leading in 4 seats while the YSRCP, which is set to sweep Telangana, has zero leads.

Early trends in Punjab are in line with the exit polls, with the Congress leading in 9 seats. The BJP-Akaali Dal alliance is leading in three seats while the Aam Aadmi Party is leading in one, as of 5 p.m.

What The 2014 General Elections Showed

In Punjab, the Congress won three seats in the last general election with a 33.19 percent vote share. The Shiromani Akali Dal won four seats (26.37 percent), Aam Aadmi Party got four (24 percent) and the BJP two (8.77 percent).

The election before that, Congress won eight seats in Punjab with 45.23 percent voter share. The BJP won one seat with 10.06 percent while the Shiromani Akali Dal four seats with 33.85 percent voter share.

What The 2017 Assembly Election Showed

The Indian National Congress won the last elections in Punjab with 77 seats with 38.50 percent of the vote share. The Shiromani Akali Dal bagged 15 (25.24 percent) and the AAP won 20 seats (23.72 percent). Only 5.39 percent of electorate voted for the BJP, which fetched them three seats.

Early trends for Andhra Pradesh election results showed Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party is ahead in all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party is on zero.

What Happened In 2014?

Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party grabbed 16 of the 42 seats that went on poll. Telangana Rashtriya Samiti won 11 while YSR Congress won nine seats.

A third of the votes polled in the state went to the TDP, while K Chandrashekara Rao’s TRS got 14.03 percent of the total votes. The overall voter turnout for the 74.64 percent in the previous federal elections.

The BJP is leading in 24 out of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka with more than 50 percent vote share, while the Congress-JDS alliance is leading on four seats with 42 percent of votes. DV Sadananda Gowda (BJP) is ahead of Krishna Byre Gowda (Congress) in Bengaluru North by 1,41,621 votes, according to election commission data.

Four exit polls predicted that the BJP will win at least 20 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, while ABP-Nielsen expected a neck-and-neck battle between the saffron party and the Congress.

What Happened In 2014

The BJP had won 17 seats with a 43.37 percent vote share. The Congress managed to elect only nine MLAs despite accounting for 41.15 percent of all ballots cast. The JD(S) bagged two seats with 11.07 percent vote share.

• Modi is leading in Varanasi by close to 5 lakh votes.
• Amit Shah is leading in Gandhinagar by over 5.5 lakh votes.
• Smriti Irani is leading in Amethi close to 20,000 votes.
• Rahul Gandhi's lead in in Wayanad has narrowed to around 4 lakh votes.
• Sonia Gandhi is leading in Rae Bareli by over 1.5 lakh votes.
• Nitin Gadkari is leading in Nagpur over 1 lakh  votes.
• Rajnath Singh leading in Lucknow by over 3 lakh votes.
• Pragya Singh Thakur is leading Bhopal by over 3 lakh votes.
• Ravi Shankar Prasad is leading in Patna Sahib by close to 2 lakh votes.
• BJP's Manoj Tiwari is leading Delhi (North East) by over 3 lakh votes.
• Akhilesh Yadav is leading in Azamgarh by over 1 lakh 61,000 votes.
• Kanimozhi is leading in Thoothukudi by nearly 2.4 lakh votes.
• Shashi Tharoor is leading in Thiruvananthapuram by over 87,000 votes.
• INC’s Karti Chidambaram leading by over 2 lakh votes in Sivaganga.
• BJP’s DV Sadananda Gowda leading by over 1 lakh 46,000 votes in Bangalore North
• Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore leading by nearly 3 lakh 90,000 votes in Jaipur Rural
• Gaurav Gogoi’s lead falls to 84,500 votes in Kaliabor
• Dharmapuri Aravind (BJP) leading by 56,000 votes in Nizamabad
• Ramesh Chander Kaushik (BJP) leading by 1 lakh 61,000 votes in Sonipat
• Pashupati Nath Singh (BJP) leading by 3 lakh 31,000 votes in Dhanbad
• Ram Swaroop Sharma (BJP) leading by 3 lakh 97,000 votes in Mandi  (SAME)
• Tirath Singh Rawat (BJP) leading by 2 lakh 84,000 votes in Garhwal
• Sunil Kumar Soni (BJP) leading by 3 lakh 20,000 votes in Raipur (HUGE JUMP)
• Dr. Jitendra Singh (BJP) leading by 3 lakh 45,000 votes in Udhampur (SAME)
• Hasnain Masoodi (J&K NC) leads fall to 7,153 votes in Anantnag
• Gaurav Gogoi (INC) leading by 1 lakh 42,000 votes in Kaliabor
• Gurjeet Singh Aujla (INC) lead falls to 98,500 votes in Amritsar (SAME)

The BJP-led NDA is leading in all 25 seats in Rajasthan as of 5 p.m. - a state where the Congress party recently came into power in assembly elections. The UPA, naturally, is on zero.

The BJP’s had won all the 25 seats in Rajasthan in the last general election as well.

Latest trends for Delhi election results show the BJP is leading in all seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital, with union minister Harsh Vardhan ahead in Chandni Chowk and Ramesh Bidhuri gaining in South Delhi, EC data showed. The early trends are from the counting of postal ballots.

The BJP is leading in six of the 21 seats in Odisha, as of 5 p.m. The Bharatiya Janata Dal, in comparison, is leading 15 seats. Congress is currently on zero.

A poll of polls indicated that the BJP will pull off an upset in Odisha by winning 12 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha. It expected the BJD to bag nine seats. The exit polls, however, predicted the Naveen Patnaik-led party to win the state assembly election.

Polling for the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies and 147 assembly segments in Odisha was held in the first four phases of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, with an average voter turnout of 73.10 percent. That compares with 73.79 percent turnout in 2014.

What Happened In 2014?

The BJD won in a landslide. Not only did the party corner 44.77 percent of the votes polled, it also won 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Congress, despite having the second-highest vote share of 26.38 percent, drew a blank. The BJP’s Jual Oram was elected as the Sundargarh MP with a vote share of 21.88 percent.

In 2014 assembly election, the BJD won 117 out of the 147 seats in the state. The Congress had won 16 seats, while the BJP bagged 10.

The Congress-led UDF alliance is dominating Kerala, leading in 18 seats as of 1:10 p.m. The Left Democratic Front was leading in one while the NDA’s leads stood at zero.

What Happened In 2014?

The United Democratic Front won 12 out of the 20 seats in the state with Indian National Congress winning eight seats. The Left Democratic Front comprising of the two communist factions— Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) finished second after claiming victory in eight seats.

The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance did not open its account. Indian National Congress managed to garner a third of the total votes polled, while the CPI (M) captured over 21 percent of the total votes cast.

The BJP is leading in 28 seats, as of 1:10 p.m., in India’s heartland. The Congress is leading in a single seat in comparison.

Modi’s popularity had helped the BJP win 27 of the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh in 2014, with the Congress securing only two.

Latest trends for Bihar election results show the BJP-JDU alliance is ahead on 37 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state while the Congress-led UPA is leading on three seats.

Rival parties have shed differences in a bid to keep out the incumbent NDA government.

The highlight was the tie-up between the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. For years, Mayawati and Malayam Singh Yadav have fiercely contested against each other in the state. But after being nearly wiped out in 2014, the BSP supremo and Akhilesh Yadav came together.

While the Congress retained its allies in the Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam in Tamil Nadu, the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar, and the Nationalist Congress Party in Maharashtra, it found a new one in the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka—after the two teamed up to keep the BJP out in the state in the last assembly elections.

BJP hasn’t been sitting quiet either in forging alliances. They mend their relationship with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, won over the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu and the Janata Dal (United) in Bihar, while retaining the Shiromani Akali Dal as its partner in Punjab.

Top opposition leaders met earlier this week to discuss the possibility of a forging a non-NDA alliance that can stake claim to forming a government. The meeting was attended by Congress leaders Ahmed Patel, Ashok Gehlot and Ghulam Nabi Azad, TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu, CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and DMK’s Kanimozhi, among others.

On numerous occasions, the BJP has criticised the opposition getting together as a ‘khichdi’, offering itself as a strong, stable alternative. But with exit polls indicating the return of the NDA, will these attempts prove futile.

The Election Commission is counting votes today for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the largest democratic exercise in the world, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party widely expected to win.

The 2019 Lok Sabha elections, after a high-octane campaign and seven phases of voting across 542 constituencies and over 10 lakh polling stations in six weeks, has finally come to its climax.

Allegations, jibes and controversies ranging from the Rafale deal to the credibility of electronic voter machines dominated the headlines. And the election was largely seen as a battle between the opposition parties banding together against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

The BJP focused on issues of nationalism, using the recent Balakot air strikes as a show of strength against neighbour Pakistan. The opposition, on the other hand, highlighted the Modi government’s shortcomings on jobs, economy and agrarian distress.

The BJP remains confident of securing a majority this time, too. Party chief Amit Shah said they are on course to secure over 300 seats, something that even the exits polls have predicted.

A resurgent Congress hopes to put up a challenge. Rahul Gandhi, who has focused on reviving the party after the 2014 debacle, has said that BJP will be voted out. Other opposition leaders including Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and MK Stalin have also said that their objective is to ensure BJP doesn’t return to power.

But who takes the throne? Here are the latest updates and developments from Election Results 2019.