After almost two months of the electoral process, counting of votes for the Assembly elections began across four states and one Union Territory on Sunday, 2 May.
The TMC is set to win the Assembly elections with over 200 seats, defeating the BJP, which is leading in about 70 seats, in the eight-phase state elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and various Opposition leaders, including NCP's Sharad Pawar, AAP leader and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, and Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav congratulated Mamata Banerjee, as her party continued to hold on to strong leads in the West Bengal elections.
Trends from Tamil Nadu show the DMK-led alliance comfortably ahead with leads in 147 seats, while the AIADMK-led alliance is leading in 85. The alliance that wins 118 out of 234 seats will clinch power in the state. A DMK victory will mark party chief MK Stalin’s first stint as chief minister.
Meanwhile, as DMK workers celebrated the encouraging trends, party president MK Stalin asked party cadre not to leave the counting centre till all votes were counted and to avoid celebrations.
PM Modi, RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav, Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, congratulated MK Stalin, as his party continued to hold on to a comfortable lead in the Tamil Nadu elections.
As counting progresses, the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has maintained a comfortable lead in 99 Assembly constituencies. The alliance that wins 71 out of 140 seats will clinch power in the state. Several leaders congratulated Pinarayi Vijayan’s LDF, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, NCP leader Praful Patel and PM Modi.
The results come at a time when 3,92,488 new COVID cases were registered in the last 24 hours.
Ten states including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan reported 72.72 percent of the new cases.
India's total active caseload has reached 33,49,644. It now comprises 17.13 percent of the country's total positive cases. A net incline of 80,934 cases recorded from the total active caseload in the last 24 hours.
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