Modi seen as PM as BJP emerges clear winner

Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi seems all set to enter 7 Race Course Road as the next prime minister of India, with early election results showing a clear lead for the BJP and the National Democtratic Alliance, in perhaps the biggest election victory the country has seen in 30 years.

Counting of votes at 1:30 this afternoon showed that BJP has crossed the minimum 272 seats required to win a simple majority in the 543-member lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha, in what is perhaps the biggest win for the party since 1984.

The larger alliance, the NDA, was leading in at least 330 seats while the ruling UPA, was trailing with 69 seats and the Congress leading only in 58 seats. The

Latest trends showed the BJP leading in 278 of the 543 seats while the Congress was ahead in 58 Lok Sabha constituencies and its UPA partner NCP was leading in 5 constituencies.

• BJP ally Shiv Sena was ahead in 18 constituencies
• AIADMK was leading in 37 constituencies
• Trinamool Congress in 31 constituencies
• TDP in 14 constituencies
• TRS in 12 constituencies
• YSR Congress in 10 constituencies
• SP in 10 constituencies
• CPM in 8 constituencies
• RJD in 7 constituencies and
• BJD in 2 constituencies.

The BJP also swept all seven seats in the national capital with the AAP putting up some fight and the Congress trailing as a poor third.

With the stunning results exceeding all forecasts BJP started its victory celebrations around the country and Congress conceded defeat.

Speaking to media, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that this marks an 'epochal moment in the history of India'.

BJP President Rajnath Singh congratulated party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi over the party's performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

Modi himself won the Vadodara seat by 4 lakh as a Modi wave engulfed Gujarat on expectations of the son of the soil - Narendra Modi – becoming the prime minister. Modi was far ahead with 4,32,446 votes and was leading by over three lakh votes against his nearest Congress rival Madhusudan Mistry, who has polled 1,30,937 votes, The BJP was also leading in all 26 seats in the state, although there seemed to be some fight in two seats with Congress candidates.

Veteran BJP leader L K Advani was also leading from Gandhinagar seat.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president, Rahul Gandhi, however, avoided the ignominy of certain defeat, securing clear leads over their BJP rivals.

In West Bengal, it was Mamata Banerjee all the way with the Trinamool is leading in 33 seats, while the Left Front was leading in 4, Congress in 3 and BJP in 2 constituencies.

BJP candidate Varun Gandhi has won the seat of Sultanpur and Jaswant Singh was leading in Barmer while Arun Jaitley was trailing in Amritsar.

In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK was leading in 37 constituencies - a stupendous record.

Narendra Modi who was in Gandhinagar, visited his mother Heeraben to seek her blessings. Speaking to reporters she said, "He has my blessings, he will lead India to the road of development".