Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], June 4 (ANI): With the counting of votes in the 2024 Lok Sabha election underway, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Maji on Tuesday expressed confidence in the INDIA bloc crossing the majority mark and forming the next government at the Centre.
She also criticized the exit polls that predicted a third term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claiming that they were conducted by "pro-BJP media to mislead people."
"The exit polls were misleading. They were Modi Media polls, not the poll of the people. We have full faith that we will form the government at the Centre," Mahua Maji told ANI.
"In UP, trends on more than half of the seats were in favour of the INDIA bloc. The trends are very positive for us. We think that this time the government will change at the Centre," she added.
According to the latest trends from Uttar Pradesh, where 80 Lok Sabha seats are at stake, the INDIA alliance is doing better than what most of the exit polls predicted.
The most remarkable story for the opposition is from Uttar Pradesh where the Samajwadi Party belied the prediction of pollsters and is ahead of BJP, according to the latest trends from the Election Commission.
While the Samajwadi Party (SP) is leading on 37 seats in the state, the BJP is leading on 32 seats. The Congress, which fought the election in alliance with the SP, has also done better and is leading on eight seats. BJP is trailing in Faizabad, which includes the temple town of Ayodhya, as per the initial trends by the Election Commission of India.
PM Narendra Modi is contesting from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat, which he won in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Meanwhile, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) leading on one seat each.
Voting was held in seven phases in Uttar Pradesh.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the winner by securing the majority of seats. Of 80 seats, the BJP won 62, followed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with 10 seats, the Samajwadi Party (SP) with 5 seats, and the Apna Dal with 2 seats.
Uttar Pradesh, the state with the highest number of seats, is poised to see the BJP emerge victorious with 65 out of 80 seats, according to exit polls. The polls predicted that its NDA allies in the state, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Rashtriya Lok Dal, are slated to win 2 seats each, bringing the NDA tally to 69 seats.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is leading in two Lok Sabha seats, Wayanad in Kerala and Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, according to early leads as the counting of votes for the 2024 general elections is underway.
He was leading by over three lakh votes in Wayanad and Raebareli. In Kerala's Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi is facing BJP leader K Surendran and CPI's Annie Raja in the constituency. In Raebareli, he is contesting against BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh.
Thakur Prasad Yadav is contesting from the Bahujan Samaj Party.
For, the Congress, Amethi and Rae Bareli, its family strongholds, are prestige battles. This holds especially true for Amethi, where Rahul Gandhi lost to BJP's Smriti Irani last time. While the Samajwadi Party is contesting 62 seats, the Congress is fighting 17.
Most exit polls have predicted a return of PM Modi to power, a development that would make him the first Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to secure a third successive term in power.
Around 642 million people voted in the Lok Sabha elections held over seven phases in a mammoth six-week period. The counting of votes began starting with postal ballot papers amid tight security on Tuesday. (ANI)
