Counting of votes has begun for 542 Lok Sabha seats. The final results are expected in the evening. The seven phases of Lok Sabha elections took place from April 11 to May 19. The fate of 8,040 candidates will be decided today when the counting of votes polled for the 17th Lok Sabha elections is done. According to the EC, 67.11 percent of voters cast their votes. This was the highest turnout in the Lok Sabha polls since independence.
Voting took place at 10.35 lakh polling stations across 36 states and Union Territories.
According to the first trends, BJP-led NDA is leading in Churu. Interestingly, PM Narendra Modi had kick-started 2019 Lok Sabha campaign from Rajasthan's Churu parliamentary constituency. NDA is also leading in Rajasthan's Jhalawar and Alwar. In Karnataka too, the NDA is ahead in Karnataka's Bellary and Chikkodi.
Notably, it is for the first time that slips of five VVPATs will be matched with the EVMs in the Lok Sabha Elections. Due to tallying of voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips with EVM count for the first time, the results are expected only by late evening.
also read: Counting begins to decide the fate of 8,040 candidates