Amidst the six-week long process of Lok Sabha elections, intense campaigning, seven phases of voting and all the claims and promises, now the time for the results has come. After a few hours from now, it will be decided which party or coalition will form the next government in the country.
Counting of votes for all 542 Lok Sabha seats will begin at 8 am on Tuesday. BJP has already won the Surat Lok Sabha seat unopposed.
First the counting of postal ballots will start and after half an hour the votes cast in EVMs will be counted.
If there are no ballot papers at any centre, then counting of EVM votes will start directly.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said in a press conference on Monday that during the seven phases of voting from April 19 to June 1, 64.2 crore voters out of 96.8 crore registered voters in the country exercised their franchise.
Among these, the number of women voters is 31.2 crore. On an average, total voting took place at 58.58 percent.
Rajiv Kumar said that 1.5 crore election personnel and security personnel were deployed in this entire process. At the same time, 68,000 surveillance teams were formed.
Voting took place in 7 phases, many new trends emerged
The tenure of the 17th Lok Sabha is ending on 16 June. Earlier, elections were conducted in seven phases like this:
• In the first phase, on 102 seats in 21 states.
.88 seats in 13 states in the second phase
• 94 seats in 12 states in the third phase
• 96 seats in 10 states in the fourth phase
• 49 seats in 8 states in the fifth phase
• 58 seats in 7 states in the sixth phase
• 57 seats in 8 states in the seventh phase
During this period, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal are the only three states where elections were held in seven phases –
According to the Election Commission, many new trends have been seen in this election. As such, a significant increase in women’s participation was seen in these elections. In the fifth and sixth phases, the percentage of participation of women voters was more than that of men.
For the first time in history, home voting facility was introduced, in which people above 85 years of age and physically disabled people with 40 per cent benchmark were given the option to vote from their homes.
According to the Commission, this time people in Jammu and Kashmir turned out to vote at a record level. 58.55 percent voting took place in Jammu and Kashmir, which is the highest participation in the last 35 years. According to the Commission, 51.05 percent voter participation was recorded in Kashmir Valley, which is an increase of more than 30 points compared to the previous elections in the 3 parliamentary constituencies of the valley.
These statements and issues remained in the headlines
Mangalsutra
In this election, one word which was heard a lot was ‘Mangalsutra’. PM Modi started this in an election rally. Citing the Congress manifesto, he said that if Congress comes to power, it will not allow even the Mangalsutra of women to escape.
Taking the name of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, PM Modi also said that when Congress was in power, Manmohan Singh had said that Muslims have the first right on the country’s property.
Congress rejected these claims outright and said that the PM is doing politics of dividing Hindus and Muslims.
Uproar over Sam Pitroda’s statement
Senior Congress leader Sam Pitroda twice made such statements on which BJP cornered Congress. Speaking on India’s diversity in an interview, Sam Pitroda said, “We can keep together a country as diverse as India, where people living in the East look like Chinese, people living in the West look like Arabs, people living in the North look like “Those who live in the country look like white people, but it doesn’t matter. We are all brothers and sisters.”
BJP termed his statement as a racial comment and attacked Congress fiercely. At the same time, Congress also distanced itself from Sam Pitroda’s statement.
Another statement of Sam Pitroda came into discussion when he mentioned inheritance tax and said that it should be discussed in India also. On this issue, BJP said that Congress wants to distribute the savings and property of the common man.
delay in voting data
Opposition parties also targeted the Election Commission several times. Opposition parties continued to raise questions on the impartiality of the Election Commission. But the matter escalated further when the Election Commission was accused of releasing the voting related data late.
This matter reached the Supreme Court. The opposition also raised questions on the Election Commission when PM Modi used phrases like ‘infiltrator’ and ‘producer of more children’. The Election Commission issued a notice to the BJP President instead of PM Modi in this matter.
Prajwal Revanna
JDS MP and candidate from Hassan seat of Karnataka Prajwal Revanna remained in controversies. JDS is an ally of BJP in Karnataka. Prajwal Revanna is accused of sexual harassment and recording hundreds of sex videos, controversy arose after many of the videos went viral.
Prajwal Revanna had gone abroad after voting on Hassan seat. The opposition fiercely attacked BJP regarding this. Recently, when Prajwal Revanna returned to the country, he was immediately arrested.
Arvind Kejriwal’s release
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal was not seen in the beginning of this Lok Sabha election. The reason for this was that he was arrested by ED and he was lodged in Tihar Jail of Delhi. However, in his place his wife Sunita Kejriwal appeared completely active.
But a new turn came in the elections when, after the completion of three rounds of elections, on May 10, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Kejriwal for 21 days. Kejriwal got permission to campaign during this period. As soon as Kejriwal came out of jail, he surrounded BJP and claimed victory of India alliance.
He said that if BJP comes to power again, Modi will remove Yogi Adityanath from the post of CM of UP in two months. Along with this, he also raised the issue of Modi’s age.
He said that if BJP wins, Modi will retire and Amit Shah will become the Prime Minister of the country in his place. BJP termed both these claims as Kejriwal’s imaginary pudding.
When Tejashwi Yadav was seen eating fish
Amidst the elections, a video of Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav was also in the headlines. In this video, Tejashwi Yadav was seen eating fish. He was in the helicopter with Vikassheel Insaan Party chief Mukesh Sahni.
The reason for the controversy was the timing of this video, because when this video was posted on social media, it was the occasion of Navratri. BJP said that Tejashwi Yadav is eating fish during Navratri to hurt the sentiments of Hindus. Whereas Tejashwi said in his clarification that this video is from before Navratri, and has been posted later.
Nitish Kumar in road show
Another video from Bihar was also discussed a lot. This video was of a road show of PM Modi in Patna in which Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal United chief Nitish Kumar was also present.
But in this road show, instead of holding his party’s symbol of bow and arrow, Nitish Kumar was seen holding BJP’s symbol of lotus flower. After this, opposition parties took a lot of jibe at Nitish Kumar.
elections in extreme heat
Heat also became a big issue during the elections. The record breaking heat especially in North India also affected the elections. In many places, heat was cited as the reason behind low voting percentage.
Along with this, news of death of polling personnel from some places also created a stir in the election season.
Many leaders also criticized holding elections in this season. On Monday, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar also said that the next Lok Sabha elections in 2029 will end by the end of April as the turnout has declined due to the intense heat in many states across the country.
NDA coalition government in exit poll
With the completion of the seventh phase of voting, claims of victory are also being made from different parties. BJP national president JP Nadda has said that BJP will win 370 seats and NDA alliance will get 400 seats. At the same time, Congress President Mallikarjul Kharge has claimed that the India alliance will win more than 295 seats.
Meanwhile, exit polls of different news channels and agencies have predicted the formation of the NDA coalition government. NDA has been shown getting more than 350 seats in the exit polls of ABP-CVoter, News 24- Today’s Chanakya, India TV, Republic TV-PMARQ Matrix, Jan Ki Baat, India News- D-Dynamics.
News 24- Today’s Chanakya has predicted NDA to get maximum of more than 400 seats. Chanakya’s exit poll says that BJP may get more than 335 seats, Congress may get more than 50 seats and India Alliance may get more than 107 seats.
India alliance does not trust exit polls
Leaders of Congress and the opposition India Alliance say that the exit polls are far away from the ground reality. Let us tell you that under the leadership of Congress, more than two dozen political parties of the country had formed the India Alliance in July last year.
However, this alliance suffered a setback in the beginning when Nitish Kumar, one of the leaders who gave direction to the alliance, left the ruling alliance in Bihar and joined BJP.
Since then, there were many reports of rift in the India Alliance, but the India Alliance contested the Lok Sabha elections together. However, in states like West Bengal and Punjab, Trinamool Congress and Aam Aadmi Party contested the elections separately and not in alliance with the Congress.
Huge surge in stock market
There was a huge surge in the stock market on Monday morning after the news of BJP led NDA alliance getting lead in exit polls. Sensex opened with a gain of almost two thousand points. Whereas Nifty opened with a gain of about one thousand points in the pre-opening.
Due to the boom seen in the stock market, it is being speculated that if there is no change in power, the market will remain bullish or stable. Exit polls for Lok Sabha elections 2024 have predicted Narendra Modi coming to power for the third time.
