New Delhi, May 23: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has crossed the 279 seats mark needed to form the government in terms of leads, as of latest updates. As per lates updates the NDA is about to touch the 300 seats mark, while UPA is around 100 as of 10 am on May 23.
As of the Election Commission official result website, the BJP was leading in 279 seats while the Congress was leading in 51 seats (As of 10.15 am, May 23).
The counting of votes for the elections held in 542 Lok Sabha constituencies is being held today. The massive seven phase elections were held between April 11 and May 19.
The BJP's main election plank was nationalism and a hard stand on terrorism which seems to have struck a chord with the voters. BJP stormed to power in 2014 by winning 282 seats and formed a full majority government after three decades. The Congress could win just 44 seats in 2014, their worst ever performance in general elections. Congress criticised the Modi regime and accused the BJP led government of manipulating the central agencies. Majority of exit polls which were released on May 19 predicted ouright win for the NDA and some polls predicted that the BJP may get majority on its own.