Lok Sabha Elections 2024: This is PM Modi's moral and political defeat, says Jairam Ramesh

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trailing in the initial trends from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat earlier this morning, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said that this is PM Modi's "moral and political defeat" and such thing has never happened that a Prime Minister was trailing from his own constituency.

"These trends show that the present (PM) is going to become the former. This is his moral and political defeat. It has never happened before that the Prime Minister trails from his own constituency. The trends in Varanasi are just the trailer," Jairam Ramesh told ANI.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Modi was trailing by more than 5,000 votes in Varanasi when the counting of votes began, however, he surged ahead of Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajai Rai and is currently leading by more than 75,000 votes.

The latest trends by the Election Commission on 542 Lok Sabha seats show that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) crossing the halfway mark with the BJP leading on 238 seats and winning one seat. The NDA is leading on 295 seats as per the trends as reported by the Election Commission.

The INDIA bloc is leading on 230 seats with its ally Samajwadi Party (SP) ahead on 33 seats and Trinamool Congress on 29 seats. Both Rahul Gandhi and PM Narendra Modi are leading from their constituencies of Rae-Bareli and Varanasi. Rahul Gandhi is also leading in Wayanad.

In the Hindi heartland state of Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is leading on 35 seats and its ally partner RLD leading on two seats while the Samajwadi party is leading on 34 seats, as per the initial trends by the Election Commission.

In the 2019 elections, NDA wrested 353 seats, of which the BJP won 303 alone. The Opposition's UPA got only 93 seats of which the Congress got 52. Around 642 million people voted in 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.

The alliance of Telugu Desam Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party is likely to form the government in Andhra Pradesh as according to the early trends, the TDP is leading on 127 seats and the BJP on 7 seats.