PM Modi wins from Varanasi, defeats Congress' Ajay Rai by over 1.5 lakh votes

Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won the Varanasi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, as the counting for the Lok Sabha elections is underway.
PM Modi has defeated Congress candidate Ajay Rai by a margin of 1,52,513 votes, according to the Election Commission of India.
Prime Minister Modi received 6,12,970 votes while Ajay Rai received 4,60,457 votes. Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Ather Jamal Lari was in the third position with 33,766 votes.
In the state of Uttar Pradesh, BJP is ahead on 31 seats, while its allies Rashtriya Lok Dal and Apna Dal are ahead on two and one seat respectively. Notably, this is much lower than BJP's 2019 tally, when it registered a massive victory winning 62 out of 80 seats.
The INDIA bloc has registered a strong performance with Samajwadi Party and Congress being ahead on 38 and 7 seats respectively.
Following the defeat, Congress candidate Ajay Rai, thanked the people of Kashi for their support adding that PM Modi had to face difficulty even in winning by a margin of 1,50,000 votes.
"Everyone has been campaigning for him and despite that PM Modi was trailing for the last three hours. He had to face difficulty even in winning by a margin of 1,50,000. The people of Kashi have shown that their support is with their brother (me)," Rai told ANI.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) crossed the majority mark in early leads and is ahead on around 300 seats, while the INDIA bloc, defying all predictions is leading on over 230 seats.
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 NDA.
Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang congratulated Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. He also assured that Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) fully supports the NDA.
"Congratulations to the Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji and the NDA on their remarkable victory in the 18th Lok Sabha elections. The Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) Party fully supports the NDA for the development and prosperity of our country," Tamang stated on X.
SKM won the lone Lok Sabha seat in the state.
Earlier on Sunday, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) registered a landslide victory in the Sikkim legislative assembly elections.
SKM won 31 out of the 32 seats sweeping the assembly polls in the Himalayan state while the opposition Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) was confined to a lone seat.