New Delhi: As Lok Sabha Elections 2014 raced to a close and counting of ballots progressed, leads indicated that the NDA is headed for a landslide victory, making rapid gains across the country. As leads became available for all 543 Lok Sabha seats, the NDA was ahead in 336 seats, not only far ahead of the half-way mark but also perhaps looking at a victory whose scale they had not themselves anticipated.
PM-designate Narendra Modi was declared winner from Vadodara by over 4 lakh votes and was leading comfortably in Varanasi even as reports said the Congress was preparing to concede defeat. While it has made gains across the country, the BJP’s strongest performance appears to be coming from the critical state of Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP is leading in 61 out of 80 seats.
This indicates a possible growth in UP by about 600 percent, as the party won only 10 seats in UP in 2009. Parties hoping for a surprising show by Mayawati in UP were disappointed as leads showed the BSP ahead in only 5 seats. The Samajwadi Party was ahead in 9 seats.
The Congress party suffered an early onset of nerves as Rahul Gandhi was trailing in one round though he was ahead in subsequent rounds of counting in Amethi, where he faces the BJP’s Smriti Irani. High-profile candidate Nandan Nilekani in Bangalore (South), however, faced poor prospects.
The leads for 543 seats showed the UPA’s candidates ahead in only 62 seats, suggesting possible losses in as many as 165 seats where the alliance partners had incumbent MPs. The Congress on its own was leading in only 48 seats, staring at its worst ever verdict.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said news channels that the early trends looked “bleak” for the party while other leaders called the verdict a “collective failure”. The Aam Aadmi Party showed good numbers in the state of Punjab with leads in four seats, but a far cry from the 100 seats party chief Kejriwal had professed the party would win.
The first constituency to be called was Baghpat in UP, reported news channel, where Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh suffered a shock defeat to the BJP’s Satyapal Singh, a retired IPS officer and former Mumbai police commissioner. In Sultanpur, Varun Gandhi won while Sushma Swaraj was leading by nearly 2 lakh votes in Vidisha.
Two hours after counting began, leads were on expected lines. Among the BJP candidates leading are Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), Narendra Modi (Varanasi), LK Advani (Gandhinagar), Gopinath Munde (Beed), Hema Malini (Mathura), Harshvardhan (Chandni Chowk in Delhi, where he takes on Congress’s Kapil Sibal), Ananth Kumar (Bangalore South), Maneka Gandhi (Pilibhit), Nitin Gadkari (Nagpur), Kirit Somaiya (Mumbai North-East) were all leading. However, Arun Jaitley was trailing by 20,000 votes in Amritsar to Congress’s Amarinder Singh. From the Congress, Sonia Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and Ashok Chavan (Nanded) were leading.
Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar was trailing in Sasaram (Bihar). Shashi Tharoor (in Thiruvananthapuram) was leading in the first round but trailing by 20,000 votes in subsequent rounds. Naveen Jindal was trailing in Kurukshetra (Haryana) and Priya Dutt was trailing in Mumbai North Central. Among the other prominent leaders, Mulayam Singh Yadav (Mainpuri) and daughter-in-law Dimple (Kannauj) were ahead. A glance at state-wise leads showed the BJP stamping its authority on a majority of the states.
Expectedly, it was leading in all 26 seats in Gujarat, where the state BJP had launched “Mission 26”. The BJP’s leads in Chhattisgarh (9 out of 11), MP (25 out of 29, a gain of 9), and Delhi (7 out of 7) were also expected. The party will take some satisfaction in its leads in Maharashtra (37 out of 48 seats), Bihar (28 of 35, a gain of 16), Jharkhand (12 of 14), Haryana (7 out of 10, a gain of 6) and Goa (2 of 2).
In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK was well ahead with leads in 24 of the 39 seats and the BJP ahead in only 2 seats. This is a tremendous win for TN chief minister Jayalalithaa, whose party is set to raise its tally from nine 20 35, an increase of 26 seats. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress looked to win the lion’s share of seats. Counting is being held at 989 counting centres.
Anticipating a comprehensive victory for the NDA, BJP offices in various cities were illuminated on Thursday night and preparations were afoot for celebrations and festivities.
Bureau Report
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