BJP’s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi is leading by a whopping 1.68 lakh votes over his Congress rival Madhusudan Mistry in Vadodara.
Initial trends showed Mr. Modi getting 2,34,647 votes and Mr. Mistry 66,531.
Apart from Vadodara, Mr. Modi is also contesting from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh where he is pitted against Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal and Ajay Rai of Congress.
Initial trends from 18 out of 26 seats in Gujarat showed BJP is leading in 17 seats and Congress in one.
Our correspondent adds:
Early indications are that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will form the government on its own. Official Election Commission of India (ECI) results as of 9.30 a.m. give 142 seats of the 286 for which leads are available to the BJP and 33 to the Congress.
Unofficial leads from TV channels gave 242 of 480 seats to the NDA, with alliance partners Shiv Sena and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) performing strongly too.
The fledgling Aam Aadmi Party leads in four seats in Delhi and four in Punjab.
