Party workers celebrate as BJP leads comfortably; Modi, Shah surge ahead

New Delhi [India], May 23 (ANI): As counting of the ballot for 542 Lok Sabha seats for the world's largest democracy is underway, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is surging ahead in Varanasi with a margin of 1,12,476 votes, while BJP president Amit Shah is leading by 1,77,350 votes in Gandhinagar.
In Varanasi, Modi's contenders - Congress Ajay Rai and Samajwadi Party's Shalini Yadav - are trailing far behind. Amit Shah's competitors in Gandhinagar - Congress' Dr C J Chavda and BSP's Jayendra Karshanbahi Rathod - are facing a similar fate.
Prime Minister Modi is seeking a second term Varanasi, a parliamentary seat he won in 2014 by defeating Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by a massive margin of 3.37 lakh votes.
Shah, who is a Rajya Sabha member, is contesting the Lok Sabha elections for the first time from Gandhinagar which was last represented by BJP veteran LK Advani.
Out of 542 parliamentary seats, the BJP was leading in 288 seats while the Indian National Congress was placed second in the list with 50 seats, as per official Election Commission trends.
With early trends in favour of the BJP, party workers and supporters burst into celebrations at various party offices as well as its headquarters in New Delhi.
Workers distributed sweets, raised slogans and were seen dancing on the beats of drums at various places.
Large scale orders for sweets have also been placed by the party across the country.
The Lok Sabha polls that commenced on April 11 and wrapped up on May 19, saw approximately 900 million voters exercising their franchise and deciding the fate of 7,928 candidates across 542 seats in the country. Out of those candidates, 724 were women and four were transgenders. (ANI)