After 44 days of voting across seven phases, the (ECI) is counting more than 600 million votes cast by Indians as they select their next national government. The vote sum started at 8 am local time (02:30 GMT), and the final results should be clear later on June 4. At stake are 543 seats in the Lok Sabha – the lower house of India’s parliament.
Leads so far propose a far closer contest than exit polls had predicted. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is projected to emerge as the single major party but could fall short of a popular on its own. The alliance it leads is still expected to cross the halfway mark of 272 seats. Meanwhile, the opposition INDIA alliance, led by the Congress party, is performing better than exit polls had projected. Here is how the main two alliances are doing, according to the latest updates from the ECI.
