Lok Sabha Election 2024 Result Live Updates: Nitish Kumar to attend NDA meeting at 11 am today

Bihar: LJP (Ramvilas) leader Chirag Paswan said, “The people of Bihar have shown faith in our party and given us mandate in all the five seats we contested. We are committed to fulfilling our responsibilities. PM Modi has shown faith in one Congress party and given us five seats and we have won all those five seats.”

Both the NDA and INDIA camps are scheduled to hold strategy meetings to gather the numbers needed to form a majority government, with a large number of political leaders from both camps due to arrive in the capital on Wednesday.

The results of the 18th Indian Lok Sabha elections have been announced, with the BJP-led NDA winning 294 seats and the INDIA bloc winning 234 seats in the 543-seat Parliament.

Rajasthan: Harish Meena, the BJP candidate from Tonk Sawai Madhopur, said, “I had faith in the people. I knew they would take the right decision. They took the decision in the interest of the constituency. The people of India are innocent but they are not fools. They listened to many false speeches and assurances. They voted for the BJP in the interest of the nation.”

Patna, Bihar: RJD leader Manoj Jha said, “You talked about 400 seats. In 2014 and 2019 you got a majority but this time you are 34 seats short of majority… The people did not allow you to reach 272 seats… Even after ‘Modi assurance’, ‘Bhain’, ‘Mangalsutra’ and ‘Mujra’, you managed to get only 239 seats…”

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK leader Stalin left for Delhi on Wednesday ahead of the Block India conference scheduled for later today. Stalin’s DMK party won 22 seats in Tamil Nadu’s 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Stalin on Tuesday termed the Indian sphere’s achievement as historic.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will attend the NDA meeting in Delhi today and will leave for the national capital at 10.45 am. Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will also attend the NDA meeting today and will leave for Delhi at 11 am.

The Narendra Modi-led government is scheduled to meet at 11:30 am on Wednesday to dissolve the current government and form a new one. Members of the National Democratic Alliance are also due to meet in Delhi, with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reportedly due to attend.

The BJP won all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi for the third consecutive time, dashing the hopes of the AAP-Congress combine. Delhi BJP candidates Rambir Singh Bidhuri, Praveen Khandelwal, Bansuri Swaraj, Harsh Malhotra, Manoj Tiwari, Kamaljeet Sehrawat and Yogender Chandriya were declared winners by margins of 124,333, 89,325, 78,000, 93,663, 138,778, 199,013 and 290,849 votes respectively.

In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP faced a major challenge from the Samajwadi Party-led Indian Union, which won 37 seats. The Samajwadi Party reduced the BJP’s tally to 35 seats from 62 in 2019.

According to the Election Commission of India, the All India Congress Party (AITC) won 29 seats, the Dravidian Nationalist Congress (DMK) 22 seats and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) 16 seats.

The Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, which Rahul Gandhi won for the second consecutive time, comprises three constituencies each in the tribal district of Wayanad and the Muslim-majority Malappuram, and one in the Christian-rich Kozhikode district. Gandhi won by a landslide victory over his nearest rival, Annie Raja of the CPI, by more than 364,000 votes.

The MP’s son’s landslide victory in Rai Bareli constituency also raises questions about which constituency he will give up, but he has said he has not decided which seat he will represent in the Lok Sabha.

Speaking after most of the election results were in in the evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the BJP-led NDA would form the government for a third consecutive term and said this was a victory for the people’s determination to “save India together” and their strong belief in the Indian Constitution.

Speaking at the party headquarters, Modi said it was the first time since 1962 that a government would return to power for a third consecutive term after two terms in power. After 60 years, “a new history” had been made, he said.

Modi also said that despite the opposition parties being united, their total number of seats was less than that of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In the 2019 Indian Lok Sabha elections, opinion polls predicted the NDA to win around 285 seats. In reality, the NDA won 353 seats, of which the BJP alone won 303. The opposition UPA won only 93 seats, of which the Indian National Congress won 52. In the 2014 Indian Lok Sabha elections, the NDA was predicted to win around 257-340 seats. However, the NDA won 336 seats, and Narendra Modi became Prime Minister for the first time.

While most exit polls had predicted a comfortable victory for Prime Minister Modi’s NDA with over 350 seats, at least three major exit polls – India Today-My Axis India, India TV-CNX and News24-Todays Chanakya – had predicted the ruling coalition to win over 400 seats in the general election.

Indian National Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday welcomed the results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, thanking the people of Wayanad and Raebareli for winning with a thumping majority and saying they had safeguarded India’s Constitution and democracy.

“I am eternally grateful to the people of Wayanad and Raebareli who gave me immense support and helped me win with a thumping majority. If I had the franchise, I would have preferred to remain the MP from both the regions,” Rahul Gandhi said at a press conference in the national capital on Tuesday.

Indian National Congress leader Sachin Pilot claimed that people did not like the Bharatiya Janata Party’s “Mandir Masjid” and “Hindu-Muslim” narrative.

“In states like West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan where the BJP had hoped to grow its base, the people rejected them. The issues we raised were well received by the people. Our arguments were optimistic but the BJP’s arguments were Mandir Masjid, Hindu-Muslim and Mangal Sutra. People may not have liked it. If they (BJP) had got more than 400 votes, who would have taken the credit? Those who wanted the credit have to accept that the people did not give them the mandate they expected,” Pilot said in an interview to ANI.

The BJP suffered setbacks in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, struggled in the south, and had limited success in West Bengal, but won in Odisha, winning 20 of the 21 seats, the Congress Party secured the remaining one, and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) failed to win a single seat. The BJP’s tally of seats is 240, down from the last election, while the Congress Party’s numbers have increased from 52 in 2019 to 99 in 2024.

With the final tally complete for India’s 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 240 seats, far fewer than expected, but still beat the opposition Indian National Congress, which won 99 seats. This is the first time since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014 that it has failed to secure a majority on its own.