Modi versus Rahul HIGHLIGHTS: PM wins Varanasi seat, Gandhi loses from Amethi

Taking a dig at the opposition parties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a single party tried to mislead the country in the name of secularism in the 17th Lok Sabha elections.

BJP's Narendra Modi has won from the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat comfortably with a margin of 4,79,505 vote margin against Samajwadi Party's Shalini Rai. This is the second consecutive term for Modi from the Varanasi seat.

At a press conference called after the election results, Congress Rahul Gandhi said: "I respect the mandate of the people and congratulate Narendra Modi for his victory. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Congress cadres."

Congress president Rahul Gandhi conceded defeat in Amethi Lok Sabha seat as the counting process for the Lok Sabha elections neared its end on Thursday. Gandhi is currently trailing against Irani by more than 35,000 votes and faces an imminent defeat at the party stronghold for over 20 years. This would be the first time in 20 years that the Congress stronghold would go to a non-Congress party. Only twice in the history of Indian elections has it happened that a political party, apart from Congress, has won the Amethi Lok Sabha seat.

BJP's Smriti Irani is set to replace Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the new MP from Amethi Lok Sabha seat as she increased her lead to over 28,000 votes. A comeback seems unlikely for Rahul as the vote counting process draws close to an end. This would be the first time in 20 years that the Congress stronghold would go to a non-Congress party. Only twice in the history of Indian elections has it happened that a political party, apart from Congress, has won the Amethi Lok Sabha seat.

With the BJP headed for a phenomenal win in the Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday attributed the victory to the country. Modi, who is set to enjoy his second straight term as the Prime Minister, said India has won again. Read more

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is staring at a shock defeat in his home turf Amethi as he trails against BJP's Smriti Irani, the Election Commission figures say. Rahul is now trailing by more than 18,000 votes against Irani and if he loses, it could be one of the biggest political upsets of this Lok Sabha elections. 

Meanwhile, Rahul is leading in his 'second home' Wayanad in Kerala with a comfortable margin of 8 lakh votes.

Literally the heart of Uttar Pradesh, Amethi has been the citadel of the Nehru-Gandhi family. The constituency has voted for the Congress for every term since its formation in 1967, except for a few years in the 1970s and the late 1990s. Amethi’s first tryst with the Nehru-Gandhi family happened in 1980 when Sanjay Gandhi won the seat. In the next three decades, the constituency changed hands across three other members of the family, with Rahul Gandhi representing the seat since 2004. Adrjia Roychowdhury writes

As the Congress suffered another humiliating defeat, the big question now is what next for Rahul Gandhi, the grand old party’s chief who had waged a fierce battle but could not translate any of the issues that he had been raising – be it Rafale, ballooning unemployment or widespread agrarian distress, into votes and seats.

Party leaders in private conceded Thursday that the Congress faltered by turning the campaign into a bitter battle against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who anyway was itching to make the election a presidential contest between him and the undeclared opposition Prime Ministerial candidate.

The TINA (there is no alternative) was Modi’s best bet and the Congress walked into the trap willingly with hands tied behind its back. Read more

Top international leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli have forwarded their best wishes to Narendra Modi for the BJP's stellar performance in the Lok Sabha elections, the results of which are being announced today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading by over 3 lakh votes now against Samajwadi Party's Shalini Yadav in Varanasi. Meanwhile, a threat of defeat looms over Congress president Rahul Gandhi' head as he now trails by over 10,000 votes against BJP's Smriti Irani in Amethi. 

However, Rahul is leading the mandate in Wayanad in Kerala by over 5 lakh votes.

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani Thursday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for getting a strong mandate in the Lok Sabha elections. "Congratulations to PM @narendramodi on a strong mandate from the people of India. The government and the people of Afghanistan look forward to expanding cooperation between our two democracies in pursuit of regional cooperation, peace and prosperity for all of South Asia," Ghani said on Twitter.

As per the latest trends by the Election Commission, BJP's Smriti Irani looks set to deliver a shock defeat to Congress president Rahul Gandhi on his home bastion. Irani is leading by 9.766 votes against Rahul Gandhi. 

BJP's Smriti Irani is leading by over 5,500  in Amethi against Congress' Rahul Gandhi, the latest figures by Election Commission of India suggest. Rahul had flipped back Irani's lead a while ago by over 2,000 votes but the latter has regained the lead. 

In April this year, Punjab minister and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu had said that he will quit politics if party president Rahul Gandhi suffers a defeat from Amethi seat. Sidhu had also rejected the claim that BJP's Smriti Irani is posing a challenge to Gandhi in Amethi.

Interestingly, Irani is leading against Rahul Gandhi in Amethi as per the current trends.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is putting up a fight in his home turf Amethi after trailing behind BJP's Smriti Irani in the early trends. Gandhi, who was earlier trailing by over 5000 votes, has now reduced the margin to 2,688. 

Jubilant over the early trends showing a BJP majority government returning to power at the Centre, Rajnath Singh called BJP's performance in the Lok Sabha polls a "historic victory". "This historic victory in general elections is outcome of Modi's visionary leadership, Amit Shah's dynamism," news agency PTI quoted him as saying. He also thanked the people of India for giving decisive mandate to BJP-led NDA, reposing faith in Narendra Modi's leadership. He said Modi is now all set to build New India.

(PTI)

Amethi has remained the citadel of the Congress but this time round BJP’s Smriti Irani is giving Congress chief Rahul Gandhi a run for his money. Rahul Gandhi is trailing Irani in Amethi by nearly 5,000 votes but is clearly ahead in Wayanad in Kerala with a lead of more than 1 lakh votes. While Irani garnered 48.79 per cent of the vote share in Amethi, Gandhi is close behind with 44.18.

Smriti Irani campaigned aggressively in Amethi, where she had contested and lost to Rahul Gandhi in 2014 but had managed to reduce his winning margin to one lakh. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who had campaigned for her brother, had cited the Gandhis’ legacy and the constituency’s “personal” relationship with the family in Amethi. Read more

While trailing in his traditional home turf Amethi against BJP's Smriti Irani, Congress president Rahul Gandhi is leading in Wayanad by 2,68,897 votes against CPI's PP Suneer. Gandhi had chosen to fight from two constituencies this Lok Sabha election. 

In Amethi, BJP's Smriti Irani is leading by over 4649 votes against Gandhi. 

It's all going easy for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi as his lead stretched to over 1.7 lakh votes over Samajwadi Party's Shalini Yadav. The Prime Minister is leading by 1,74,335 votes. Congress' Ajai Rai is running at third position. 

Meanwhile, the BJP is leading over 56 seats in the state. SP is leading in 8 and BSP is leading in 12 seats. Congress is leading on only one seat in UP as per the latest trends.

Amethi is a Congress bastion, but Rahul, a three-time MP from the constituency, has held the seat the longest. Before him, it was represented by his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, his father Rajiv Gandhi and his uncle Sanjay Gandhi. Before she entered active politics, Rahul’s sister Priyanka, now Congress general secretary, often canvassed the constituency as well.

The BSP-SP-RLD alliance, despite fighting the polls in UP without the Congress, did not put up a candidate in Amethi as a show of support to Rahul. Amethi was the only seat apart from Rae Bareli (Sonia Gandhi) that the Congress managed to win in 2014 polls

In Amethi, BJP candidate Smriti Irani is leading the mandate with 7638 votes against Congress president Rahul Gandhi. A similar trend had occurred in 2014 elections when Irani was leading in the seat but eventually had Gandhi emerged as victorious. However, Irani had reduced Gandhi's winning margin to a mere 1 lakh votes. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA is heading for a second term with the BJP leading in 295 seats, according to the latest data from the Election Commission. Trends indicate the BJP is leading the charge in Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana, Delhi among others and has made inroads in West Bengal and Odisha. For India election news, read here

The margin between Rahul Gandhi and Smriti Irani widens in Amethi. The BJP candidate has a lead of over 3,000 votes. Rahul first won Amethi in 2004 with a margin of 100,000 votes. In 2009, he retained the seat defeating his nearest rival by 370,000 votes. In the last general election in 2014, Rahul defeated BJP’s Smriti Irani by a margin of one lakh votes.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is leading in Wayanad constituency, where is contesting the Lok Sabha elections. He is up by 36,000 votes against CPI's PP Suneer and NDA's Thushar Vellappally.

While Rahul Gandhi is trailing in Amethi, he has a comfortable lead in Wayanad. BJP's Smriti Irani is leading with a narrow margin of nearly 1500 votes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is hoping to be re-elected from Varanasi. He is pitted against Congress' Ajay Rai and Samajwadi Party-BSP's Shalini Yadav. In the 2014 polls, Modi's win margin was so high that many candidates including Ajay Rai had to forfeit his deposit. Even before Modi, Varanasi had been a BJP stronghold, with the party retaining it consistently since 1991 except in 2004, when the Congress’s Rajesh Kumar Mishra had won.

In Amethi, considered to be a stronghold of the Congress, party president Rahul Gandhi is pitted against BJP's Smriti Irani. Gandhi, the four-time MP is seeking re-election from Amethi and is also contesting on the Wayand ticket . In 2014, Irani brought down Rahul’s victory margin to just over a lakh. She also aggressively flagged Gandhi’s decision to contest from a second seat calling it an insult to the people of Amethi. On the other hand, Rahul had whipped up the Congress’ emotional connect with Amethi to counter the BJP and recently in a letter, the Congress chief had addressed the voters as part of his “pariwar” and Amethi as his “karmabhoomi”. Will Rahul be able to save his home turf?

PM Modi leading in Varanasi. SP candidate Shalini Yadav second, Congress third, in initial rounds of counting @IndianExpress

— Lalmani Verma (@LalmaniVerma838) May 23, 2019

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is leading in Wayanad, according to C-Voter. 

The high range constituency Wayanad, which came into national prominence after Congress chief's Rahul Gandhi's candidature, had registered a record polling of 80.31 per cent against the 73.25 per cent registered in the 2014 elections. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who contested from Wayanad in addition to Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, his party colleague Shashi Tharoor, BJP leader Kummanam Rajasekharan (both Thiruvananthapuram) and Union Minister Alphons Kannamthanam (Ernakulam) were among prominent candidates in the fray.

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