LS polls: Counting underway, leaders claim victory

New Delhi (India), May 23 (ANI): With counting of votes for Lok Sabha elections underway, leaders across the political spectrum expressed confidence of victory on Thursday.
Poonam Sinha, Samajwadi Party's Lucknow candidate and wife of Congress' Shatrughan Sinha, reiterated her claim of trumping Union Minister and sitting lawmaker Rajnath Singh. "Our alliance (SP-BSP-RLD) is very strong in Uttar Pradesh. It has worked for the people in the state and I feel people have voted for the alliance," she said.
Contrary to Sinha's claim, Rajnath Singh's son Pankaj counted on the development work done by his father and said, "With the blessing of the almighty, we will win the polls with a record margin."
In New Delhi, BJP leader Prem Shukla stated that the National Democratic Alliance will bag more than 300 seats as predicted by most of the exit polls. "There is no chance for 'if and but' because 'abki baar 300 par' (this time, we will cross 300)," he said.
Jaipur Rural Congress candidate and Olympian Krishna Poonia, who is pitted against Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, refused to buy Shukla's claim and said: "I am fully confident that the people have voted for the Congress and the Congress is going to form the government."
Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary exuded confidence to claim results in favour of the grand-alliance in Uttar Pradesh and stated that BJP's ideology is harmful.
He said, "Alliance has tried its best to remove the BJP. It is sure that people in UP are with alliance and results will also be in favour of it. BJP 's ideology is not good for the people of this country."
Leaders in Tamil Nadu, where 22 Assembly seats are up for grabs along with 38 Lok Sabha constituencies, also claimed victory.
DMK spokesperson Saravanan said, "We are very confident that we will be able to sweep both the parliamentary elections and assembly by-poll elections. There will be the change of government both at the Center and in Tamil Nadu. Our president MK Stalin has already said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi will be the prime ministerial candidate of the DMK."
Countering Saravanan's claims, ruling AIADMK leader Kovai Sathyan said his party will register a "historic win" in the by-elections and national polls. "AIADMK is going to rewrite history as we did in 2016. We expect that people here have accepted the leadership and cadre of AIADMK," he said.
He said: "DMK hopes of Congress coming to power in the centre has been shattered. Stalin is a daydreamer and we wish him to continue with his dreams."
Counting of votes for 542 Lok Sabha seats and assemblies of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh and bypolls for 22 seats of Tamil Nadu Assembly is underway. The voting of the elections ran through April 11 to May 19. (ANI)