BJP alliance NDA leads with nearly 300 seats, INDIA bloc makes strong gains

India's ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance today faced a stiff challenge from opposition INDIA bloc as counting of votes progressed in all the 542 Lok Sabha elections.

NDA led in 280 seats to cross the majority in the 543-member Lok Sabha in trends available for 528 seats while main opposition Congress-led INDIA bloc put up a commendable fight going past the 200-mark in terms of leads, the Election Commission's latest data showed.

The majority mark is 272 and under India's first-past-the-post system, any party or alliance of parties achieving that is declared the winners after actual results are declared.

BJP alone was ahead in 237 seats at 10:30 am and won the Surat seat in Gujarat uncontested. Congress on its own led in 97 seats.

Congress-led INDIA bloc was leading in 206 seats, a performance that is much better than what was predicted in the exit polls.

In the previous national poll, Congress had bagged 52 seats, its worst performance in Lok Sabha elections.

BJP appeared suffering big losses in the electorally most crucial state of Uttar Pradesh where Samajwadi party (35 seats) and its ally Congress(six seats) led in 42 of the total of 80 seats and BJP in 35.

In West Bengal, ruling TMC led in 25 of the 42 constituencies and BJP in ten.