Will the BJP-led NDA return to power for a third term? Will the opposition parties, united under a front called INDIA, manage to give a tough fight to PM Modi? And will this election spring any new surprises? All questions will be answered tomorrow as the Election Commission announces the result of the Lok Sabha election 2024.
Months of preparation and weeks of on-ground campaigning will see its final outcome on Tuesday.
The counting will start at 8 am. The count of postal ballots will start first across all counting centres. After half-an-hour of the start of the postal ballot count, the counting of votes recorded in the electronic voting machines will commence, the Election Commission said.
The order of counting will be: the postal ballot count, and then the EVM count, and finally the matching of VVPT slips with EVM results.
TIMELINE OF 2024 LOK SABHA POLLS
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections spanned seven phases: April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1. Twenty states including Delhi voted in a single-phase.
Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir polled in 5 phases, while Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal voted in all seven phases of voting. Polling in Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tripura, and Manipur were held in two phases. Chhattisgarh and Assam saw 3 phases of voting, and Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand had 4 phases of polling.
As per a report by PRS Legislative Research, 8,360 candidates from 744 parties, including six nationally recognised parties, contested elections across 543 constituencies.
POLITICAL PARTIES’ PREDICTION vs EXIT POLLS
The INDIA bloc leaders expressed confidence in securing the majority. After the seventh and final phase of polling ended on June 1, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge confidently said, “INDIA bloc will win at least 295 seats.”
However, the India Today-Axis My India exit poll, as well as several other exit polls, suggested a third term for the BJP-led NDA. The exit polls predict that the BJP, which has been loud with its ‘400 paar’ slogan, might just finish near the mammoth number.
A poll of five exit polls, including India Today-Axis My India poll, suggests that the BJP-led NDA is likely to win 379 seats. The INDIA bloc, with the Congress as the main constituent, is likely to get 136 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
Source Agencies
