LS polls: BJP leading in Rajasthan with 13 seats, Congress with nine

New Delhi [India], June 4 (ANI): As the vote counting is underway for the 18th Lok Sabha elections, the Bhartiya Janta Party is leading with 13 seats in Rajasthan, according to the Election Commission of India.

On the other hand, the Indian National Congress is leading with nine seats, while the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPI(M), Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLTP), and Bharat Adivasi Party are leading with one seat each.

For the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP contested all 25 seats under the NDA. Under the seat-sharing arrangement of the INDIA bloc, Congress contested the polls from 22 seats, while its allies Bharat Adivasi Party, CPI(M), and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) contested the elections from one seat each.

Around 642 million people voted in Lok Sabha elections held over seven phases in a mammoth six-week period. The counting of votes began starting with postal ballot papers amid tight security. The counting for State Legislative Assemblies of 175 Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and 147 Assembly constituencies in Odisha and results of bypolls in 25 Assembly constituencies also began.

Strict security has been put in place for the smooth conduct of counting of votes for over 8,000 candidates in this general election. With counting began for the Lok Sabha elections, which have seen the largest voter participation, the electoral fate of several leaders across the political spectrum will be decided.

Two exit polls predicted the BJP would also improve its numbers from the 303 seats it won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Most exit polls predicted a straight term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with quite few of them projecting a two-thirds majority for the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The Congress party and its allies dismissed the exit polls as “orchestrated” and a work of “fantasy”, asserting that the opposition INDIA bloc will form the next government at the Centre.

In the 2019 elections, NDA wrested 353 seats, of which the BJP won 303 alone. The Opposition’s UPA got only 93 seats of which the Congress got 52.