Highlights: The charge of the Right brigade

After two months of high-octane campaigning, controversy over EVM tampering and violations of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), the D-Day has arrived for the world's largest democracy. BJP-led NDA appeared set to retain power as the alliance has taken a clear lead over the Congress-led UPA to cross the majority mark of 272 and race well over 300 seats out of the total 542 Lok Sabha seats. As predicted in exit polls, BJP is making handsome gains in West Bengal and has managed to thwart the threats from Mahagathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh. Punjab is likely to be the only state where the Congress is expected to make huge gains on its own.Saffron party has taken leads in many key states including, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Delhi and Maharashtra.All India figures based on leads:PartiesLeadsFinal ResultTotalBJP+333-333Cong+102-102Others107-107Total (542)542-542Here are the live updates:* Former Prime Minister HD Devegowda trailing from Tumkur. Pragya Thakur leading by a big margin from Bhopal.* West Bengal (42 seats): TMC leading on 24 seats, BJP on 17 seats and Congress on 1 seat* BJP President Amit Shah leading by over 2.5 lakh votes from Gandhinagar. Union Ministers Manoj Sinha and Maneka Gandhi trailing from Ghazipur and Sultanpur respectively* Jyotiraditya Scindia is trailing by 40,000 votes from Guna, Madhya Pradesh. Congress's Shashi Tharoor leading from Thiruvananthapuram by over 13,000 votes. * Smriti Irani gains momentum against Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Rahul trailing by over 7,300 votes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading by over 1 lakh votes in Varanasi.* BJP's Hema Malini leading from Mathura Lok Sabha seat. BJP's Giriraj Singh and Ravi Shankar Prasad ahead by a huge margin in Bihar's Begusarai and Patna Sahib.* BJP's Tejasvi Surya leading by over 1 lakh votes in Bangalore South. National Conference leading from Anantnag, Mehbooba Mufti trailing at third place.* Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot is trailing behind BJP candidate Gajendra Singh Shekhawat with a margin of 18,874 votes in Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat. * Gujarat: BJP ahead in all 26 seats, BJP president Amit Shah leading by over 1 lakh votes in Gandhinagar.* BJP-Shiv Sena leading on all six seats of Mumbai. Congress's candidate Urmila Matondkar from Mumbai is trailing.* Chhattisgarh (11 seats): BJP leading on 9 seats, Congress leading on 2 seats * Independent candidate Sumanlatha Ambareesh leading by over 1,200 votes from Mandya against Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy's son Nikhil Kumaraswamy.* Congress leader Manvendra Singh trailing from Barmer, Union Minister Rajvardhan Rathore leading from Jaipur Rural* Congress leading on 8 seats in Punjab, BJP & SAD leading on 2 seats each and AAP leading on one seat* BJP leading on all seven seats in Delhi. * BJP candidate and Union Minister Maneka Gandhi trailing from Sultanpur, Sonia Gandhi leading from Rae Bareli. Varun Gandhi leading from Pilibhit.* Owaisi trailing in his stronghold Hyderabad. * Sunny Deol now takes lead. Kanaihya Kumar from Begusarai is trailing against BJP's Giriraj Singh; BJP's Tejasvi Surya leading from Bengaluru South; SAD's Harsimrat Kaur Badal leading from Bhatinda; Jyotiraditya Scindia from Guna and Vivek Tankha from Jabalpur, trailing* BJP's Gautam Gambhi leading from East Delhi, Sonia Gandhi leading in Rae Bareili; Cong's Milind Deora trails in South Mumbai; BJP's Varun Gandhi leading in Pilibhit; Mehbooba Mufti trailing from her bastion Anantnag.* DMK races ahead in Tamil Nadu; In Kerela, BJP is leading on 3 seats. In West Bengal, BJP takes lead on 5 seats; BJP leading on most seats in Karnataka.* BJP candidate from Bhopal Pragya Thakur now leading against Congress's strongman Digvijaya Singh.* Anticipating victory in the Lok Sabha elections, BJP has invited 20,000 party workers today evening to the BJP headquarters in Delhi for celebrations.* The Union home ministry has alerted all states and Union Territories on the possibility of violence in different parts of the country, saying calls were given in various quarters for inciting violence.

from Economic Times http://bit.ly/2HS0LXJ