The BJP appeared set for a resounding comeback on Thursday with leads in 269 seats while the Congress trailed far behind with 51, according to trends available with the Election Commission for 495 of 542 Lok Sabha seats. As votes for the seven-phase parliamentary polls were counted on Thursday, the DMK was ahead in 20 seats, the Janata Dal-United in 15, the Trinamool Congress in 20 and the Bahujan Samaj Party in 12 and its ally Samajwadi Party in eight seats, according to the poll panel.

Most television channels displayed that the BJP is way ahead of the Indian National Congress 320 seats. As the trends came in, pointing to another tenure of Narendra Modi as prime minister, there were reports of celebrations in the BJP's party offices across the country. The trends of the ruling party's leads were in sync with the exit polls, most of which predicted that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would be on course to retain power for a second term.