Grand Alliance fails as BJP sweeps away the country

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday led his Bharatiya Janata Party towards a supersized victory for a second term in office as his message of nationalism security Hindu pride and a New India was wholeheartedly embraced by voters across large swathes of the countryWith the elections establishing the 68yearold Modi as the most popular leader in decades the partial vote count released by the Election Commission showed that BJP will surpass its 2014 performance and likely cross 300 seatsUntil 6 pm the BJP had won 26 seats and was leading in 278 of the 542 Lok Sabha seats that went to polls in seven phases demolishing the combined opposition with the Congress Party stuck with seven victories and a lead in 43 seats according to the trendsBJP in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday retained all the four Lok Sabha seats in the state as its candidates won by a record huge margins election officials saidHamirpur sitting MP Anurag Thakur Kangra candidate Kishan Kapoor Shimla candidate Suresh Kashyap and Mandi sitting MP Ram Swaroop Sharma won their seats by defeating their nearest Congress rivalsThe main contest in the state was between the Congress and the BJPHimachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur thanked all the voters for the landslide victory of the partyHe told reporters here that the victory confirms that people have expressed faith and confidence in the programmes and policies of his governmentFor the former chief of the national cricket body Anurag Thakur this was the fourth consecutive victory He won by 387 lakh votes against Congress legislator Ram Lal ThakurFrom Kangra the largest Lok Sabha constituency in the state in terms of voters the BJP had fielded Cabinet Minister Kishan Kapoor 68 after dropping veteran leader Shanta Kumar against twotime Congress legislator Pawan Kajal 44Kapoor defeated Kajal by states highest margin of more than 477 lakh votesIn the Shimla reserved seat it was an exserviceman versus an exserviceman Retired Colonel Dhani Ram Shandil 78 who was the Congress candidate lost by over 327 lakh votes to BJP nominee and former Indian Air Force IAF officer Suresh Kashyap 48Sitting BJP MP and the Chief Ministers confidante Ram Swaroop Sharma won the seat for a second term from Mandi He was contesting against Congress greenhorn Ashray Sharma who is the grandson of former Telecom Minister Sukh RamSharma retained the seat by a margin of more than 405 lakh votesSukh Ram a Congress veteran had joined the BJP just before the Assembly elections but defected back after his grandson was denied a ticketPrime Minister Narendra Modi has won the parliamentary elections while the Congress has lost said the sixtime Chief Minister and Congress leader Virbhadra SinghAlso Read Lok Sabha Election Results 2019 Live Update India has united to elect us says PM ModiWe have lost Modi has won he told a news channel hereCongratulating Modi for winning a majority of seats in the country Singh said it was time for his party to introspectFortyfive candidates including a lone woman were in the fray for the four seatsWith the states electorate in the Lok Sabha polls traditionally favouring the party at the helm these elections were being seen as a referendum on the states 17monthold Jai Ram Thakur governmentA total of 3801793 voters 7225 per cent of 5262126 eligible ones exercised their franchise in a single phase on May 19 The BJP wrested the state from the Congress in December 2017 winning 44 seats in the 68member Assembly The Congress won 21 seats Independents took two and the Communist Party of IndiaMarxist won one seatThe Grand Alliance of opposition parties seems to have failed in the Lok Sabha elections Jharkhand if the counting trends and margins are any indicationBJP is leading in 11 seats and its ally the All Jharkhand Students Union AJSU in one seat Both the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha JMM are leading in one seat eachThe formal result declarations are delayed owing to the counting of VVPATsThe BJP has registered a convincing lead in seven seats and is locked in a tough fight in two constituencies Khuti and LohardaggaUnion Minister Jayant Sinha taken a big lead of over 388461 votes over his rival Congress candidate Gopal SahuTwo former Chief Minister are likely to lose the polls while a third one is struggling JMM president Shibu Soren is trailing by over 32651 votes from the BJP candidate Sunil Soren Unconfirmed reports here say that Soren has lost the poll by over 42000 votesIn Koderma the BJP candidate Annapurna Devi has registered a lead of 447099 votes over Jharkhand Vikas Morcha JVMP President and former Chief Minister Babulala MarandiAlso ReadElections Results 2019 PM Modi retains Varanasi seat with 480 Lakh marginFormer Chief Minister Arjun Munda and the BJPs Khuti candidate has built a lead of 1298 votes over Congress candidate Kalicharan MundaIn Ranchi BJP candidate Sanjay Seth has established a lead of 269951 votes over Congress candidate Subodhkant SahayIn Lohardagga Union Minister Sudarsan Bhagat of the BJP is locked in a tough fight against Congress candidate Sukhdeo BhagatThe BJP has also registered a good leads in the Palamau Chatra Godda and Dhanbad seats AJSU has taken a convincing lead of more than 247000 votes in GiridihThe four parties JMM Congress RJD and JVMP had formed a Grand Alliance in Jharkhand to taken onthe BJP The alliance seems to have not worked and JMM is set to lose its traditional Dumka seatJharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das has thanked the voters for reposing their faith in Prime Minister Narendra ModiThis is history Under the leadership of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah development and national security became election issues and we won the election he saidThe BJP made stunning inroads in Trinamool Congressruled West Bengal with the trends of Lok Sabha elections on Thursday showing a virtual saffron sweep in the states northern parts as also the western tribal heartland while Chief Ninister Mamata Banerjees party managed to hold on to its ground in and around Kolkata and a major chunk of the south BengalAfter close to nine hours of counting the saffron party was leading in 18 of the 42 seats in the state up from only two in 2014 while the Trinamool was ahead in 23 seats 11 down from 34 which it had won in the last Lok Sabha electionsThe Congress became more marginalised leading in only one seat while for the first time after independence the Left failed to open its account in the state as the Trinamool and the BJP engaged in a seesaw battle in many of the seatsA saffron storm swept the entire northern West Bengal including the Darjeeling hills notwithstanding Trinamools attempt to forge alliance with a faction of the dominant hill outfit Gorkha Janamukti MorchaThe BJP also managed to cut deep into West Bengals tribal belt by going ahead in Purulia Bankura Jhargram Bishnupur and Medinipur seats with substantial marginsThe Trinamool however seems to be retaining its hold over its bastion in Kolkata Howrah East Midnapore North and South 24 Parganas districtsIn Darjeeling that simmered with the statehood agitation of Gorkhaland in 2017 BJP candidate Raju Bista is leading over his nearest rival former Darjeeling MLA Amar Singh Rai of Trinamool Congress by a mammoth 35 lakh votesIn Alipurduar bordering Bhutan saffron partys John Barla was ahead of Trinamools Dashrath Tirkey by over two lakh votesBJP candidate and Trinamool turncoat Nisith Pramanik was leading over Trinamools Paresh Chandra Adhikari by more than 50000 votesAnother north Bengal constituency Jalpaiguri was also painted in saffron as BJPs littleknown leader Jayanta Kumar Roy a doctor was leading over Trinamools Bijoy Chandra Barman by 137 lakh votesThe real surprise came from Muslimdominated Malda a traditional Congress bastion where BJP candidates were ahead in both Malda North and Malda South seats with slender marginIn Raiganj where two BJP youth activists were allegedly shot dead by police during an agitation demanding science teachers at Daribhit High School last year BJP candidate Debasree Chaudhuri was leading Sitting MP Mohammad Salim of the CPIM was in the third spotIn Asanol Union Minister Babul Supriyo was on the verge of victory over his Trinamool rival and yesteryears actress Moon Moon Sen while his ministerial colleague SS Ahluwalia was in a neck and neck contest with Mamtaz Sanghamita of the Trinamool in BardhamanDurgapurIn Bengals tribal heartland and Junglemahal once a hotbed of Maoist insurgency the saffron flag fluttered high as BJP candidates led over many a stalwart of the states ruling partyState BJP president Dilip Ghosh has opened up a comfortable 87000 plus lead over former state minister and Trinamool candidate Manas Bhunia in MedinipurBJPs Subhas Sarkar was leading over veteran Trinamool leader and state minister Subrata Mukherjee in Bankura by over a lakh votes while the saffron partys Kunar Hembram was ahead of Trinamools Birbaha Soren in JhargramIn south Bengals Hooghly constituency West Bengal BJPs women wing president Locket Chatterjee was leading over Trinamools Ratna De Nag by 72000 votesTrinamool howeverm performed handsomely in the four constituencies in Kolkata and HowrahIts Kolkata South candidate Mala Roy was leading over BJP candidate and Netaji Subhas Chandra Boses grand nephew Chandra Kumar Bose by 15 lakh votes while its Kolkata North candidate Sudip Banerjee was ahead of BJP heavyweight Rahul SinhaThe Trinamool candidates had left behind their BJP rivals in both Howrah and Uluberia constituencies in Howrah districtIts actressturnedcandidates Nusrat Jahan and Mimi Chakraborty were also leading in the Basirhat and Jadavpur constituencies respectivelyMamata Banerjees nephew Abhishek Banerjee was on his way to a handsome victory as he was already ahead of his nearest rival BJPs Nilanjan Roy by over three lakh votes in Diamond HarbourThe state which went to polls in seven phases witnessed the most bitter electioneering between the TMC and the BJP and was marred by large scale violenceIn the 2014 elections the Trinamool had increased its tally by 15 seats over the 2009 poll results by wresting seats from the Left FrontThe BJP this time went all out to make electoral gains in the state with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself holding several ralliesParty chief Amit Shah also addressed many public meetings besides holding road shows in the stateThe Congress led in one constituency while the Left which had ruled the state for decades faced a washoutIn what could be described as a mixed bag of results the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP in Goa won one Lok Sabha seat but lost the other amid a saffron tsunami in the country on ThursdayHowever the BJP won three Assembly byelections in the state while losing the prestigious Panaji Assembly seat which was held by the ruling party since 1994Victory in three Assembly seats has now put the BJPled coalition government in the state on a firm footing according to Chief Minister Pramod SawantUnion Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik won the North Goa Lok Sabha seat by over 62000 votes provisional against his nearest Congress rival Girish Chodankar who polled 150466 votes provisionalNaik a fourtime MP battled both antiincumbency as well as a potential backlash from the aggrieved sections of Goas banned mining belt but managed to ride the proverbial Modi wave to victoryThe victory exposes the Oppositions negative campaign The people of North Goa are with Modiji Naik saidIn the South Goa Lok Sabha constituency sitting BJP MP Narendra Sawaikar conceded defeat even before the final votes could be talliedWhile Sawaikar polled 189798 votes provisional Congress Francisco Sardinha a former Chief Minister of Goa got 199688 votes provisionalI accept my defeat I thank everyone for the support and cooperation shown to me throughout my tenure as an MP Sawaikar saidThe BJP performed creditably in the Assembly byelections winning three of the four seats The significant loss came in the Panaji Assembly seat which was held by the BJP since 1994 largely represented by the late Manohar Parrikar It is time to put Panaji on the development track after 25 years of inefficiency said Congress Atanasio Monserrate after he beat the BJPs Sidharth Kuncalienkar by 1758 votesMeanwhile Chodankar accepted responsibility for Congress defeat in North Goa and in the three Assembly byelections but maintained that by winning the prestigious Panaji Assembly seat the Congress had wrested the heart of Goa from the BJPAs the state President I accept moral responsibility for the Congress losses But Panaji is the heart of BJP and Goa and the Congress has won it after 25 years I want to thank the people of Panaji for this Chodankar saidBJPs Dayanand Sopte Subhash Shirodkar and Joshua DSouza won the Assembly byelections in Shiroda Mandrem and Mapusa respectively the latter two by relatively narrow marginsChief Minister Pramod Sawant said the three byelection wins which took his partys tally to 17 in the 40member Goa legislative Assembly would lend further stability to the coalition government in the stateThe government will be more stable now with these wins Sawant told reportersAccording to political analyst and former Independent MLA Radharao Gracias the BJPled coalition government is now mathematically stableTo add to the mathematical stability there is the National Democratic Alliance NDA government at the Centre Gracias saidAnd signs are that BJPs local allies such as Goa Forward Party GFP which have blown hot and cold against the majority alliance partner in the past already appear to have fallen in line especially with the mammoth victory projected for the Narendra ModiAmit Shah combinationAs partners in the NDA I congratulate you on your personal victory and your partys win May this historic win pave the way for even closer partnership between our parties in the state and help take Goa forward Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai of the GFP said soon after the counting trends suggested a big win for the NDASawants government is supported by three MLAs of the GFP and three Independents which takes its tally to 23 in the 40member House