New Delhi: The Election Commission of India has officially declared the outcomes for 542 of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, with the BJP clinching 240 seats and the Congress securing 99.
The awaited result for the Beed constituency in Maharashtra, where NCP (Sharad Pawar) candidate Bajrang Manohar Sonwane leads BJP's Pankaja Munde, is still pending.
With Surat's BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal elected unopposed, counting was conducted for 542 seats out of the total 543 in the Lok Sabha.
As per the early Wednesday results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is poised for a third consecutive term, leading the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to a majority in the Lok Sabha. This victory comes despite significant losses in three Hindi heartland states, marking a fiercely contested election widely viewed as a referendum on Modi's popularity.
While the BJP, under the banner of Modi, secured 240 seats, falling short of the 272 majority mark, it will require the support of NDA allies for government formation. This is a notable deviation from its previous triumphs, having won 303 and 282 seats in 2019 and 2014, respectively.
The NDA surpassed the halfway mark with support from key allies like N Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Nitish Kumar's JD(U), which won 16 and 12 seats in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar, respectively, alongside other alliance partners.
In opposition, the Congress, part of the INDIA bloc, secured 99 seats, a notable increase from the 52 seats it won in 2019, particularly making gains in Rajasthan and Haryana.
The Samajwadi Party uplifted the INDIA bloc's morale in Uttar Pradesh with 37 seats, while the Trinamool Congress (TMC), another significant opposition member, secured 29 seats in West Bengal, surpassing its 2019 tally of 22. Conversely, the BJP, which previously held 18 seats, managed to secure only 12 this time.
The election results did not align with the landslide victory anticipated by the BJP-led NDA and the projections from exit polls.
The electoral process, spanning seven phases from April 19 to June 1, witnessed over 640 million votes cast, solidifying its status as the world's largest democratic exercise.