Even as the counting of votes was underway and multiple rounds of counting were yet to take place, INDIA bloc's performance in trends emerged to be a surprise as most exit poll surveys had predicted under 200 seats for the Congress-led Opposition alliance.
Defying expectations, exit poll predictions and its 2019 performance, Congress and its allies - called the INDIA bloc - inched closer to the mighty Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in trends as votes were getting counted for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 on Tuesday, June 4.
While the counting of votes was underway and multiple rounds of counting were yet to take place, INDIA bloc's performance in trends emerged to be a surprise as most exit poll surveys had predicted under 200 seats for the Congress-led Opposition alliance. Lok Sabha Election Results LIVE Updates
At the time of writing this report, the NDA was leading on 291 seats while the INDIA bloc, which has been assertive on the '295' number, was ahead on 224 Lok Sabha constituencies.
Another surprise development during counting of votes was when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not leading from his seat - Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi - and Congress's Ajay Rai was leading by over 6,000 votes.
PM Modi quickly recovered and took the lead.
INDIA bloc's performance in Lok Sabha elections 2024, as per trends so far, reflects a massive improvement from the 2019 general polls when Congress had bagged just
In another major shock, Indian stock markets crashed by over 6,000 points on Tuesday, June 4, after a sharp rally in the previous session, even as early vote-counting trends showed Modi's BJP-NDA leading in more than 270 seats, but the extent of the victory was not clear and its lead narrower than what exit polls had predicted.
While Sensex crashes 6,126.30 points to 70,342.48, Nifty tumbled 1,958.25 points to 21,305.65.
The benchmarks had jumped more than 3 per cent on Monday, hitting record highs and logging their best session in nearly 40 months after exit polls projected that the BJP-led alliance will likely get a two-thirds majority in the lower house.
In 2019, the Congress had bagged 53 seats and its allies 38.
Exit poll projections, which were out on June 1 after the conclusion of Lok Sabha polls 2024 voting, had projected an improved performance this elections for the INDIA bloc but had also predicted an NDA sweep. The BJP-led NDA, as per exit poll predictions, is set to return for a third straight term as most pollsters predicted close to or over 370 seats for the latter in the Lok Sabha elections 2024, majority mark in which is 272.
The NDA, however, seems to not be achieving its target of 400-plus seats, as per projections by most pollsters.
Today's Chanakya exit poll agency and India Today-Axis My India exit poll projected that the BJP might hit the 400 milestone, and restricted the INDIA bloc to over 100 seats.