Lok Sabha results 2019: BJP surges ahead on counting day, leaders send congratulations

Counting of votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha election began on Thursday, 23 May, after a 38-day polling process that ended on May 19. Early trends showed the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) heading for a second straight term, as exit polls had predicted. Final results were expected to take a few extra hours because 20,625 VVPAT slips had to be matched with EVMs.

How the trends moved

By mid-morning the BJP’s leads alone had crossed 272. In the early afternoon the Election Commission said the BJP was ahead on 298 seats and the NDA as a whole on 349, while the Congress was hovering around 90. In Delhi the BJP led in all seven seats, and Manoj Tiwari was at one point ahead of the Congress’s Sheila Dikshit by 198,524 votes in North East Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led comfortably in Varanasi.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi was trailing BJP’s Smriti Irani in Amethi by over 6,000 votes in early trends, but had a lead of over 58,000 in Wayanad. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was third in Anantnag. In Andhra Pradesh, Jagan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party was leading on 150 Assembly seats against 23 for the TDP, and Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was expected to resign.

In Begusarai, Bihar, supporters of BJP’s Giriraj Singh and CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar clashed and threw stones at each other after Singh’s supporters set off crackers to celebrate his lead, and several people were reported injured.

Reactions

Modi tweeted: “India wins yet again! #VijayiBharat.” BJP president Amit Shah called the result a victory of the country’s youth, poor and farmers. Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated Modi. Omar Abdullah and the AAP also congratulated him, while Mehbooba Mufti tweeted: “Time for Congress to get an Amit Shah.” Congress leader Rashid Alvi alleged EVM tampering, and Rahul Gandhi was expected to address the media at around 4 pm.

What happened next

When counting was complete, the BJP had won 303 of 543 seats and the Congress 52, and Modi was sworn in for a second term on 30 May 2019. In the Andhra Pradesh Assembly election, the YSR Congress Party won 151 seats to the TDP’s 23, and Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy became Chief Minister.

See also: Lok Sabha members, Bharatiya Janata Party

Originally published on 23 May 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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