Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Live Updates: Repolling underway in two booths in West Bengal - The Times of India (2024)

A senior official announced on Monday that over 2,000 people would be sent to Mizoram to assist with the vote counting process for the state's sole Lok Sabha seat. Every one of the state's thirteen counting centers has a three-tier security setup, according to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Madhup Vyas.

According to him, the state capital Aizawl would have three counting centers, while each of the other district headquarters would have one.There would be 379 counting tables spread across 40 counting rooms overall. He added that a microobserver, counting agent, and supervisor would oversee and monitor each table.

A Bharatiya Janata Party delegation led by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman called upon the Election Commission of India and raised concerns over repeated attempts by a "certain section" who are trying to "undermine" the integrity of India's electoral process.

They also urged the ECI to take a few steps to ensure the safety and security of the electoral process and be fully conversant with the minutest details of the prescribed process.

The delegation of BJP leaders, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, met with the Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners.

Terming the exit polls "bogus", the Congress on Sunday said they were a "deliberate attempt to justify rigging" of the elections and part of "psychological games" being played by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lower the morale of the INDIA bloc workers.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi dubbed the exit polls as "Modi media poll".

"This is not called an exit poll but its name is 'Modi media poll'. This is Modi ji's poll, it is his fantasy poll," Gandhi told reporters at the AICC headquarters here after a meeting with party's Lok Sabha MPs via video conference.

Asked how many seats the INDIA bloc will get, Gandhi said, "Have you heard Sidhu Moose Wala's song '295'? So 295 (seats)."

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also hit out at Prime Minister Modi for holding several meetings, including a long brainstorming session to review the 100-day agenda of the "new government", saying these were "pressure tactics" to send out a signal to the bureaucracy and the administrative structure that he is coming back.

"These are mind games -- 'I am coming back, I am going to be the prime minister again'. He is sending a signal to the bureaucracy, the administrative structure of the country and we hope that the civil servants who have been entrusted with the responsibility of ensuing a fair counting of votes will not be intimidated and not be frightened by these pressure tactics," Ramesh told PTI at the AICC headquarters.

Later, in a post on X, Ramesh said, "Till the very last the outgoing Prime Minister will play mind games. Today his media managers put out news that he has held seven meetings. I'm sure they will project the news of more meetings tomorrow - but by the evening of the 4th, the outgoing Prime Minister would have become the former Prime Minister."

Congress leaders from some politically crucial states on Sunday exuded confidence that the party will do much better than what was projected in the exit polls and asserted the INDIA bloc is going to form the next government.

Leaders from states such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Gujarat stressed that the Congress' performance would be very good, belying all the predictions in the exit polls.

The assertion was made at an online interaction Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh had before the media with key state leaders, Pradesh Congress Committee presidents and legislature party leaders of various states.

During his Zoom call with Ramesh, Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah said his party would win at least seven Lok Sabha seats in the state. He said that alleged internal squabbling in the BJP and the impact of the INDIA bloc's unity would ensure a good performance of the Congress in Assam.

The state sends 14 members to the Lower House of Parliament.

Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa said all the surveys have given seven to nine seats to the Congress.

"We are ahead on nine seats, one seat will go to the AAP and three seats will be won by the candidates who will not in any way help the NDA or the PM. The INDIA bloc will get a minimum of 10 seats...In Punjab, the NDA is not going to get even a single seat," he said. There are 13 parliamentary constituency in the state.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said the Congress has an edge on two parliamentary seats and is in a tight contest on the two other seats in the hill state. He exuded confidence that the Congress was also winning the six assembly seats where the bypolls have taken place.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said the Congress would win at least two-third of the 28 seats on the back of the popularity of the guarantees the party fulfilled after coming to power in the state.

Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh said his party would definitely win six to seven seats out of the nine seats it contested in the state.

He said the INDIA bloc together would win around 20 out of the 40 seats in Bihar.

Jharkhand Congress chief Rajesh Thakur claimed the INDIA bloc will get eight to ten seats out of the 14 in the state.

Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole said the party will win 16 seats and the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance will get 38-40 seats out of the 48 in the state. People are fighting the elections against the BJP in these polls, Patole said.

Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra said the party would win at least 12-13 seats in the state.

He said there was tough fight in the remaining seats in Rajasthan -- that has a total of 25 parliamentary constituencies.

During the online interaction, Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil said the party has fought strongly in the state.

The Congress will win four to five seats in Gujarat and there was tough competition on about 12 seats he said. Gujarat has a total of 26 Lok Sabha seats.

These exit polls are an attempt to mislead the people and create pressure on counting agents, he claimed.

Haryana Congress president Udai Bhan said the Congress would win at least eight of the 10 seats in Haryana.

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajai Rai also spoke during the interaction and exuded confidence of a much better performance in his state than the projections made in the exit polls. Uttar Pradesh has 80 seats and the Congress, which fought the polls in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, contested on 17 seats.

Union minister Ramdas Athawale on Sunday said the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will get more number of Lok Sabha seats than predicted by the exit polls.

Addressing a press conference here, Athawale expressed confidence that the BJP-led NDA will get more than 400 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

On Saturday, exit polls predicted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will retain power for a third straight term, with the BJP-led NDA expected to win a big majority in the Lok Sabha polls.

While India Today-Axis My India has forecast 361-401 seats for the BJP-led alliance and 131-166 seats for the opposition INDIA bloc in the 543-member Lok Sabha, the ABP-C Voter predicted 353-383 seats for the ruling alliance and 152-182 seats for the INDIA bloc.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday questioned the veracity of the exit polls, saying the opposition had already said that "pro-BJP media" would show the ruling party crossing 300 seats in the Lok Sabha. The exit polls, which had been prepared months before and are only being shown on TV channels now, would create scope for "fraud", Yadav alleged.

He further alleged that using the exit polls, the BJP wanted to benefit from the share market which opens on Monday, and added that "disappointed faces" of BJP leaders are telling the truth.

Insisting that the INDIA bloc was winning the Lok Sabha polls, the SP chief also called on the candidates and their poll agents to closely "monitor" the EVMs on counting day.

Several exit polls, which were aired on Saturday evening, predicated a comfortable majority for the BJP-led NDA. Counting of votes for the Lok Sabha polls will be held on Tuesday.

After the predictions of the exit polls that say the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will emerge victorious for the third straight time in the Lok Sabha polls, several leaders from BJP in Rajasthan have exuded confidence in NDA getting more than 400 seats in the Lok Sabha.

Rajasthan minister Madan Dilawar told ANI that Narendra Modi will become the Prime Minister for the third time.

"BJP will win more than 400 seats in the country and PM Modi will become the Prime Minister for the third time," Dilawar said.

BJP leader from the state, Madan Rathore said that the atmosphere is completely in favour of the BJP and PM Modi.

"We will win more than 400 seats. People have faith in PM Modi's guarantees. Wherever I have been, like Telangana, Delhi, Maharashtra etc., the atmosphere is completely in favour of BJP and PM Modi," Rathore said.

Another Rajasthan minister, Avinash Gehlot, said that NDA will cross 400 seats, as the people are with PM Modi.

"I and the whole country believe that on June 4, at 4 pm, the number will cross 400, and the people of the country are with PM Modi. This was the people's election and the people are winning it, we will win more than 400 seats," he said.

Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy has expressed confidence that the Congress will win at least 10 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state and that the INDIA bloc would form a government at the Centre. In an informal interaction with mediapersons here on Saturday, he cited a post by BJP on 'X', where the saffron party has said that it would get four-five Lok Sabha seats in Telangana.

The BJP said: "In the north, we will maintain our tally in MP, Rajasthan...In Uttar Pradesh, we will increase our tally. In Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh...we will maintain our tally. In West Bengal, we will get 30+ seats. We had 18 seats, and therefore we will be nearly doubling our seats. In Odisha, there are 21 seats, and we will able to cross 18. In Telangana, we are going to win 4-5 seats...- Shri @JPNadda."

While the BJP is claiming to win four-five seats, the BRS may not get more than one and the AIMIM would retain the Hyderabad LS constituency. The remaining seats, at least 10, would go to the Congress, said Revanth Reddy, who is also Telangana Congress president.

He said that the INDIA bloc would win big in the southern states, including Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

A day after voting concluded for the Lok Sabha polls and the exit polls predicted yet another victory for the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is slated to join a virtual meeting with all candidates from his party along with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday morning, sources from the party said.

Party sources also said that after the meeting at 11 am, Kharge and Gandhi will be holding a virtual meeting with prominent Congress leaders from across the country at 1 pm.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot and other leaders of the party are expected to join the meeting to discuss the assessments and preparations for June 4, the day of the counting of votes. Congress sources said the meeting at 1 pm will be live-streamed.

The meeting also comes close on the heels of the opposition-led Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc meeting at the residence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge in the national capital on Saturday.

Leaders from Congress, Samajwadi Party, CPI-M, CPI, DMK, JMM, AAP, RJD, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (Sharad Pawar) gathered at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence for discussions.