India election results: Narendra Modi claims victory as BJP leads across country

Follow how the results unfolded as they came in

Locals turn out to vote in India's general elections

Hindu nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi has claimed victory in India’s general election.

Mr Modi promised to unite the country as his party was on course to increase its majority.

Official data from the Election Commission showed Mr Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead in 300 of the 542 seats being contested, up from the 282 it won in 2014 and more than the 272 seats needed for a majority in the lower house of parliament.

As counting continued, some senior members of the main opposition Congress party admitted defeat and a post mortem of the grand old party’s poor performance began.

Please allow the live blog a moment to load.

Key Points

• Counting began at 8am local time (3.30am BST)
• Results by midday show ruling BJP on course for another big win
• In line with exit polls on Sunday giving Modi's right-wing coalition a clear victory
• Post mortem begins for opposition Congress as it looks set to fall well short
• Some controversial right wing Hindu nationalists winning seats for BJP
• Complete results expected by late Thursday 

[23 May 2019 04:16 · Adam Withnall]

Welcome to The Independent's live blog on results day in India's general election, as the country waits to find out if Narendra Modi is returning for a second term as prime minister.

[23 May 2019 04:29 · Adam Withnall]

The count was expected to conclude by the evening, with strong trends visible by midday. In the world's largest democratic exercise, some 900 million people were registered to cast ballots for 543 seats in India's lower house of Parliament in seven phases of voting staggered over six weeks. 

The election has been seen as a referendum on Modi, whose economic reforms haven't broadly succeeded but whose popularity as a social underdog in India's highly stratified society has endured. Half a dozen exit polls showed Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party winning another five-year term.

[23 May 2019 04:31 · Adam Withnall]

The first results up to 9am were mostly from postal ballots, which showed the BJP and its allies ahead. Analysts said this was mainly service personnel allowed to vote using the postal system, so something of a skewed view and only a fraction of the population represented.

[23 May 2019 04:36 · Adam Withnall]

These are the trends at 9am, including only seats where enough results are in to suggest one candidate or the other is in the lead. 

Those numbers via NDTV.

[23 May 2019 04:42 · Adam Withnall]

With more electronic voting machine (EVM) counts coming in, the latest figures show the BJP is down about 10 per cent - 22 seats - on its own. It still puts the BJP and its allies on course for a majority, however.

[23 May 2019 04:46 · Adam Withnall]

One of the emerging stories of the day seems to be the BJP's success in sweeping the southern state of Karnataka. This was a big part of the ruling party's strategy as it expected to drop some of the seats it swept across northern India in 2014.

These are still only partial results, but the BJP is leading in 22 of the 28 seats n Karnataka - up five seats. Congress and its allies appear to be dropping 6 seats.

[23 May 2019 05:07 · Adam Withnall]

It is worth pointing out that according to the leads as things stand, and the exit polls as well, the NDA's (BJP and its allies) predicted margin of victory is larger than surveys indicated in the run-up to the vote, when most polls showed it would be the largest alliance but would fall short of an overall majority.

Modi was under pressure when he began campaigning, losing three state elections in December amid rising anger over farm prices and unemployment.

However, campaigning shifted towards India's relationship with nuclear-armed rival Pakistan after a suicide car bomb killed 40 Indian police in the contested Kashmir region in February, to the benefit of the right-wing BJP, analysts said.

"National security became the discussion," Harsh Pant, a political analyst at the Observer Research Foundation think tank in New Delhi, told Reuters. "It allowed the BJP to shirk some issues where it was weak."

[23 May 2019 05:16 · Adam Withnall]

The most important single state in terms of parliamentary constituencies is giant Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats. 

The BJP took a staggering 71 of the 80 in 2014, a performance even the party itself admitted it would struggle to repeat.

But the leads at 9.45am suggest the dip for the BJP there will not be as bad as expected. It looks to be holding on to some 61 seats - that will be seen as a very good result for Mr Modi.

[23 May 2019 05:19 · Adam Withnall]

BJP passes 272 halfway mark in early leads

Narendra Modi's party is now leading in 275 seats, a pattern which - if it translates into final results - would give the BJP a majority on its own. It is now looking similar in numbers to 2014, surpassing . what was expected in pre-election polling and exit polls. 

[23 May 2019 05:48 · Adam Withnall]

While this looks to be a disappointing result for Congress on the national scale, today's real shock might yet turn out to be the constituency result for party chief Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.

The lead in that seat, which has been held by the Nehru-Gandhi family for generations, is see-sawing right now between Mr Gandhi and his BJP challenger, Smriti Irani.

Mr Gandhi is also contesting this election from Wayanad - and could take up that seat in the Lok Sabha if he wins it. But if he fails to take Amethi it will be a damaging personal blow, and could make it difficult for him to continue as leader of the party.