India: Counting of votes for the mammoth election that began last month and ended last week will begin at 8 am. The seven-phase election, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a second term, saw 8,000 candidates fighting for 542 seats. This is for the first time in a Lok Sabha election that results of voting machines will be matched with VVPATs or slips generated by paper trail machines.
Exit polls predicted that the BJP will win almost as many seats as it did in 2014 and form a government comfortably.
The months and weeks leading up to the election saw an acrimonious campaign and bitter attacks by political rivals. The BJP campaigned aggressively on the nationalism pitch and played up the recent Balakot air strikes against Pakistan as an example of PM Modi’s strong leadership. The opposition, led by the Congress party and its leader, Rahul Gandhi, tried to steer the narrative towards the economy, farmer distress and jobs.
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Among the key candidates are PM Modi who fought from Varanasi and Rahul Gandhi, who contested from his stronghold of Amethi and Wayanad in Kerala. This is the first time Mr Gandhi contested more than one seat.
67.11 per cent of the 90.99 crore electors had cast their vote in the polls.
Votes will also be counted for the assembly election in four states – Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim – that were held along with the national polls
