See-saw battle at home, Gurgaon tracks Modi

The lack of interest, however, stemmed from the intense contest in the constituency between BJP’s Rao Inderjit Singh and INLD’s Zakir Hussain, who were at certain stages of counting separated by only a few hundred votes.

“People don’t see any point in following the counting at this stage. Till 11.30 am, the internet in our offices was jammed with almost everybody hooked onto news channels to get live feeds from the counting centres. But the excitement eased once people realised that BJP had the lead and would win with a majority,” a research professional working in Cyber Hub said.

By 1 pm, Singh was breathing easy and sounding optimistic and upbeat. His lead over Hussain had increased to around one lakh votes. “The votes at Mewat, which was Hussain’s stronghold, have already been counted. Now, areas such as Pataudi, Badshahpur and Gurgaon remain. I have a strong base in those areas. I will win by more than two lakh votes,” he said.

As the day ended, Singh had polled 6,44,780 votes. Hussain polled 3,70,058 votes. Dharam Pal of Congress and Yogendra Yadav of AAP were third and fourth, with 1,33,713 and 79,452 votes, respectively.

(With inputs from Sandali Tiwari )