BJP leads on 237 by midday counting; Sensex down 5,000 points

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP was leading on 237 Lok Sabha seats while Congress was ahead on 98 seats and Samajwadi Party (SP) on 35 seats, according to the latest trends available.

The Indian stock market reacted sharply to the results as BSE Sensex tanked over 5,000 points around 12 noon and NSE Nifty down over 1,250 points reversing yesterday’s massive gains.

BJP’s allies were doing well with TDP leading on 16 seats in Andhra Pradesh, JD (U) on 14 seats in Bihar and LJP (Ram Vilas) on five seats, as per Election Commission of India (ECI) data available on its website.

Congress party’s tally on its own stood at 95 while its allies DMK, SP and RJD were ahead on 21, 35 and 5 respectively. In Maharashtra, the grand old party’s allies NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UT) were ahead on 8 and 10 seats respectively.

BJP appeared to be staring at a massive setback in the key state of Hindi heartland Uttar Pradesh with leads only on 37 seats while the SP cruised ahead with 35 leads and its alliance partner Congress leading in 7 seats. BJP was hoping to improve its previous tally of 2019 on the back of Ram Mandir and Prime Minister Modi’s charisma but their numbers appeared to be nosediving.

As of 12 noon, the BJP-led NDA was leading at 297 seats while the INDIA alliance was ahead at 227seats.

In the two assemblies – Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, the BJP was leading at 78 seats out of 132 leads available in Odisha while in AP the TDP was ahead at 130 seats of 173 leads available, as per Election Commission of India (ECI) data.

In Rajasthan also the BJP is facing tough competition from Congress as the BJP is ahead only in 13 seats while the Congress is in 9 seats. The BJP, however, is holding on to its stronghold in Gujarat with 25 leads out of 26 while heading for clean sweep in MP with all 29 seats.

In Telangana both BJP and Congress are neck and neck with 8 leads each while in Tamil Nadu BJP is nowhere seen as far as trends are concerned. In Karnataka BJP-JD(S) combine are ahead in 18 seats while Congress is ahead on 10 seats.