Election Results 2019: The counting is underway and the final results are expected by the evening.
As the counting of votes for general elections is underway, the result trends are coming in. The counting began at 8 am today and by 10 am, all the leads were in. According to the leads at 11 am, BJP and allies crossed the 320 mark on its own and was leading on 323, while the Opposition Congress and allies were at 107. The non-aligned parties were at 112. The counting is underway and the final results are expected by the evening. For LIVE updates on election results, check the LIVE blog.
Counting is also underway for assembly elections in four states – Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.
At 11 am, BJD was leading on 78 seats and BJP on 24 seats as leads were in for 113 of 147 seats in the state.
In Andhra Pradesh, YSRC was leading on 141 seats and TDP on 27 seats as leads were in for 170 of 175 seats in the state till 11 am.
At 11 am in Arunachal Pradesh, leads for 18 seats were in, in which BJP was leading on 14 seats, Congress on one.
In Sikkim, the leads were in on 9 of 32 seats till 11 am, in which SDF was leading on 2 seats.
For the first time in India's general election, the Election Commission will tally vote count on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with voter verified paper audit trail slips in five polling stations in each assembly segment of a parliamentary constituency. It will effectively mean that of nearly 10.3 lakh polling stations, the EVM-VVPAT matching will take place in 20,600 such stations.
The national election was held in seven phases. It began on April 11 and concluded on May 19. Over 2,000 parties and 8,000 candidates are in contest for 543 seats. This time however, counting of votes will take place for 542 constituencies because elections in Tamil Nadu's Vellore had been cancelled by the Election Commission after a large amount of cash was seized during a raid. This election will choose the 17th Lok Sabha. The members of the largest party or coalition will then choose the Prime Minister. India has seen 16 general elections since independence in 1947. Around 90 crore people are eligible voters, among these, around 15 crore will be the first-time voters.