New Delhi: The BJP and its allies are set to form the next government under Narendra Modi, who is headed to the Prime Minister's residence at 7 Race Course Roadi. They now have a runaway lead with 328 seats and do not need any support to run a stable government.
The Congress has been wiped out and has admitted defeat.
Recording its best ever performance in its 34-year existence, the BJP on its own was leading in 328seats, much more than the required half-way mark in the 543-member House, while its allies were ahead in 49 seats.
This will be the first time after 30 years that a single party is securing a majority on its own after the massive number of 419 seats Rajiv Gandhi got in 1984 in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination.
Set to take over the Prime Minister next week, Modi tweeted "India has won, good days are coming".
The BJP under Atal Bihari Vajpayee had scored an individual tally of 182 seats, both in 1998 and 1999.
On the other hand, the ruling Congress was struggling with leads only in 52 seats while its allies NCP (5), IUML (2), Kerala Congress and RSP (one each) were leading in nine seats.
BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was leading in Varanasi by 83963 votes and by over 5.59 lakh votes in Vadodara.
In Amethi, Rahul Gandhi was leading with 8022 votes and Congress President Sonia Gandhi was leading by over 1.57 lakh votes in Rae Bareli.
The Modi wave threw aside a number of Congress big guns, including 10 ministers like Sushilkumar Shinde, Sachin Pilot, Veerappa Moily, Salman Khurshid, Kapil Sibal, Ajay Maken, M M Pallam Raju and Sriprakash Jaiswal besides Speaker Meira Kumar. P Chidambaram's son Karti was trailing in Sivaganga.
BJP, riding on Modi wave, was virtually sweeping Uttar Pradesh where it was leading in 67 seats out of 80 seats for which trends were available. Its ally Apna Dal was ahead in two seats.
The other major parties in the state SP and BSP were down to leads in only 7 and one, respectively. The Congress was ahead in three seats.
In the other crucial state of Bihar, the BJP was leading in 20 seats while its allies LJP was ahead in five seats and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party in three seats, respectively.
The ruling JD(U) was ahead only in two seats while RJD was leading in five and its ally Congress in two seats.
In the BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh, the party was set to score landslide victories. In Gujarat and Rajasthan, the party was leading in all the 26 and 25 seats, respectively.
Similarly, in Delhi, the party is set to secure all the seven seats from Congress.
The party was also making impressive gains Karnataka, Assam and Maharashtra.
In Karnataka, BJP is ahead in 17, leaving Congress at 9 while JD(S) was ahead in two seats out of 28 seats.
BJP put up an impressive show in Assam where it was ahead in 7 of the 14 seats, pushing ruling Congress way behind with three. AIUDF was ahead in three and independent one.
Maharashtra was another state where the saffron alliance was ahead in 38 of 47 seats for which trends were available. BJP alone was ahead in 22 seats while its oldest ally Shiv Sena was leading in 19.
The Congress was leading in one seat while is ally NCP was leading in four.
The other parties doing well in the elections are AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and TMC in West Bengal.
AIADMK was leading in 35 seats while BJP and its ally PMK were ahead in one each.
Similarly, it was TMC show all the way in West Bengal where the ruling party was ahead in 33 seats out of 41 seats for which trends were available. BJP was leading in three, Congress in four and CPI(M) in one.
Emerging story. Watch this space for updates as more details come in...
