There is a massive security presence at a counting centre in Lucknow - a city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which elects the maximum number of 80 MPs to the Indian parliament.

Early trends in the state so far show that Rajnath Singh, India's home minister, is leading there.

The BJP's controversial leader Sadhvi Pragya Thakur is leading from the Bhopal constituency in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, local media reports.

Just a reminder that these are early trends as only postal ballots are being counted at the moment.

Ms Thakur sparked a controversy when she said Nathuram Godse - Mahatma Gandhi's killer - was a patriot.

She later apologised after facing criticism from her own party and others.

Her candidacy also caused outrage as she is an accused of involvement in a blast that killed seven people and injured 100 others in the mainly Muslim town of Malegaon in 2006. Ms Thakur denies all charges against her.

Image source, Getty Images

The campaign’s biggest buzzword has probably been “chowkidar” or watchman.

Initially, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the term in speeches to describe himself as a watchmen - someone who protects and serves the people.

But in April, he upped the ante by changing his Twitter handle to "Chowkidar Narendra Modi" - prompting other senior members of his cabinet and the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to do the same.

And at one point, he even addressed a crowd of 250,000 watchmen across the country through an audio link. The "chowkidar" theme proverbially broke the internet with memes, tweets and posts.

And even supporters of the BJP started changing their social media handles and pictures to include the word.

Opposition parties couldn’t avoid the word either - even when Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, “Chowkidar Chor Hain" (The watchman is a thief), he was essentially playing by Mr Modi's rules.

We wondered what real security guards thought of this chowkidar business, so we asked them.

With 900 million eligible voters, India's election is being closely watched around the world.

The BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan explains why everyone should care.

And it looks like the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is taking a tentative lead.

The counting of votes has begun in Indian-administered Kashmir. It shouldn't take too long - the state had the worst turnout this election.

Just 29.39% of eligible voters actually turned up to cast their ballots.

Very early trends show that the leader of India's main opposition Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, is leading in Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala.

Mr Gandhi raised a lot of eyebrows when he decided he would stand there, in addition to his usual seat of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

His critics said that it showed he was afraid of losing in Amethi - his margin of victory in 2014 over the BJP’s Smriti Irani was seen as being too close. But others say this could actually be part of a wider strategy to rejuvenate the party's base in the south, which has been dominated by regional parties for decades.

Wayanad is considered a "safe seat" for Congress.

BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi says that the Congress already has a strong presence in the Wayanad constituency, adding that this is partly due to the high percentage of Muslims and Christians in the region.

Prayers come in handy when votes are being counted. Here, a BJP supporter is praying to Hindu God Shiva for the party's victory.

The northern state elects the maximum number of 80 MPs and that carries plenty of heft in the 545-seat Lok Sabha. Eight of India’s 14 prime ministers have also come from UP.

In 2014, Mr Modi’s BJP swept UP, winning 71 seats, and two other constituencies went to an ally. He is, obviously, hoping for an encore.

Image source, Getty Images

But this time, it’s unlikely to be a cake walk - he’s being challenged by a grand alliance of regional parties that has seen the coming together of former bitter foes Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav as well as some smaller players.

Even the exit polls have not been able to agree on what the outcome in the state could be. The predictions have wildly varied - some have given the party 50 seats, while others have said it will only win around 20.

The BBC's India correspondent Yogita Limaye is in Varanasi - the ancient city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh from where Narendra Modi stood.

This picture is of a food grains market in the city that has been transformed into a counting centre for today.

Electronic Voting Machines or EVMs have been in use for years in India. They were used for the first time, on an experimental basis, in 50 polling booths in the Paravur assembly constituency in Kerala in 1982.

Their use was then challenged in the Supreme Court as they weren't recognised as an official voting method under Indian law. Two years later, in 1984, a re-poll was ordered in Paravur, using paper ballots.

In 1982-83, the machines were used in 10 other seats across seven states and union territories. These elections weren't questioned.

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In 1988, after it became legal to use the machines, EVMs were used in 16 assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi.

After a large feedback study which concluded that voters trusted the machines, the EVMs were used in more than 680,000 polling stations in the 2004 elections.

There have been allegations that the EVMs can be hacked, usually by losing parties. Election authorities have maintained that the machines are robust and tamper proof.

India used more than 1.7 million machines in the 2019 election.

Read more from the BBC’s Soutik Biswas:

The counting has begun and postal ballots are being counted first. It's largely security personnel deployed in different parts of the country who are allowed to vote via postal ballots.

Indian media show the BJP ahead in the postal count - but bear in mind this is just a fraction of the overall result and the numbers are likely to change.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

India's main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was all but written off after his crushing defeat in the last elections.

But he has energised a struggling Congress party and increasingly set the agenda with a combative campaign.

He has challenged Mr Modi and the BJP on a number of issues including unemployment, the economy and a controversial deal to acquire fighter jets from France.

He has also been much more present on the campaign trail, even going so far as to stand for election in two seats this time. Candidates can do that in India - if they win both, they have to choose which to represent and the other goes to a by-election.

Read more about Rahul Gandhi here.

The counting of votes has just begun, but we are expected to see early leads across many constituencies.

This is because the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are counted in batches, and results released in phases. The media report the results in real time as they emerge

You can follow those trends here on the BBC.

Each of India's 1.7 million voting machines record a maximum of 2,000 votes (the number of registered voters at any given polling booth does not exceed 1,500) and 64 candidates.

They save time: results from machines in a single parliamentary seat are available within three to five hours, down from 40 hours when ballots were counted manually. The machines have also eliminated "invalid" votes and led to huge cost savings.

Image source, Getty Images

When a vote is cast, a paper slip is printed containing the serial number, name and symbol of the candidate and remains exposed through a transparent window for seven seconds. After this, this slip automatically gets cut and falls into a sealed drop box.

Authorities have decided to tally the paper trail slips and compare them with the electronic result provided by the machine in at least 5% of booths in assembly seats. This could lead to a delay in the declaration of final results.

It's 8:00 AM - which means the counting for the election has started now. Early trends are expected shortly.

The main opposition Congress party is praying for a win - literally.

Party workers are offering prayers outside the official headquarters in the capital Delhi.

The results of India’s marathon election will be released today. If you haven’t been paying much attention, here’s what you've missed.

And that man is Narendra Modi.

India’s 68-year-old prime minister led his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a landslide win in 2014 and is hoping to repeat that performance this time around.

The BJP-led alliance needs to win 272 seats to stay in power on its own in the 543-seat parliament.

He is up against powerful regional parties and a resurgent Congress, the main opposition party. But the election is really about Mr Modi - analysts believe it will largely be a referendum on his leadership.

Image source, Getty Images

And despite a patchy record in delivering on his 2014 campaign promises, he remains the BJP’s main vote-getter, says our correspondent Soutik Biswas.

Mr Modi is a polarising figure. His supporters hail him as a strongman who gives India the decisive leadership they believe it needs, but his critics accuse him of being a hardliner who has done little to protect minorities.

If you want to understand why he is seen as divisive, read Soutik's long read all about "Modi’s India".

... before the first results start coming in. But that has not stopped enthusiastic supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party from starting the celebrations....

Meanwhile our correspondents are already feeling the pressure!