"Historic electoral mandate": BJP leader Tejasvi Surya as NDA leads in early trends

Bengaluru: BJP candidate from Bengaluru South, Tejasvi Surya on Tuesday termed the latest trends by the Election Commission on 542 Lok Sabha seats showing that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) crossed the halfway mark as a "historic electoral mandate".
Hitting out at the opposition, Surya said that the people of the country have rejected the freebie politics.
"This seems to be a historic electoral mandate that the people of India have given in favour of PM Narendra Modi and the BJP. The INDI alliance has been a conglomeration of corrupt, caste-based communal entities. This reflects the majority of the Indian electorate, who have rejected the economic vision of the Congress and the INDI alliance. The freebie politics which would have been a sure-shot economic disaster for the country has been rejected," the BJP leader said.
Surya is leading on the Bengaluru South seats with a margin of 208993 votes as per very early leads as the counting of votes for the 2024 general elections is underway.
According to the latest trends of the ECI, the BJP is leading on 244 seats and winning one seat. The NDA is leading on 294 seats as per the trends reported by the Election Commission.
The INDIA bloc is leading on 228 seats with its ally Samajwadi Party (SP) ahead on 33 seats and Trinamool Congress on 28 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 38 seats and its ally partner RLD leading on two seats while the Samajwadi party is leading on 32 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 counting for State Legislative Assemblies of 175 Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh and 147 Assembly constituencies in Odisha and results of bypolls in 25 Assembly constituencies also began.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is eyeing a third straight term in power, while the Opposition under the umbrella of the INDIA bloc is seeking to wrest power from the ruling party.
Most exit polls predicted a straight term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with quite a few of them projecting a two-thirds majority for the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The Congress party and its allies dismissed the exit polls as "orchestrated" and a work of "fantasy", asserting that the opposition INDIA bloc will form the next government at the Centre.
The Lok Sabha elections for 543 seats of the lower house were held across seven phases.