Agencies / New Delhi
BJP led NDA is all set to form a new government at the Centre bagging 336 and leading in 15 in the 543 member Lok Sabha elections. BJP alone has won an absolute majority and heading for a landslide victory. It has secured 303 seats. The UPA has won 86 and leading in 3 while others got 85 and leading in 17. The Congress alone has bagged 51 seats.
Senior BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won from Varanasi by over 4 lakh 79 thousand votes. He has surpassed his previous margin of 3 lakh 71 thousand seven hundred and 84 votes in 2014 parliamentary elections. He defeated SP-BSP-RLD alliance candidate Shalini Yadav who secured one lakh 95 thousand votes.
Congress Leader Sonia Gandhi retained Rai Bareily while the party president Rahul Gandhi lost Amethi to Union Minister Smriti Irani by a margin of over 55,000 votes. Union Minister Maneka Gandhi won from Sultanpur. Other Union Ministers who emerged victorious include General VK Singh from Ghaziabad, Mahesh Sharma from Gautam Buddha Nagar, Santosh Kumar Gangwar from Bareilly, Anupriya Patel of NDA ally Apna Dal(S) from Mirzapur, Dr. Satyapal Singh from Baghpat and Niranjan Jyoti from Fatehpur.
Varun Gandhi of BJP won Pilibhit seat while Bhojpuri actor and BJP candidate Ravi Kishan won from Gorakhpur. Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav retains Mainpuri seat while party President Akhilesh Yadav won from Azamgarh.
Out of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 78 results have been declared and counting is on for 2 seats. BJP bags 61 seats and leading in 1. Its ally Apna Dal got 2 seats. Bahujan Samaj Party gets 9 seats and leading in one. The Samajwadi party secures 5. The third partner of Mahagathbandhan – RLD could not open its account. Congress bagged only one seat that is Rai Bareily.