The day belonged to the BJP which is headed to win Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa for a second term.

But the day will not be complete without mentioning the impressive victory of the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab where it’s set to win 92 out of the state's 117 assembly seats.

With those details, we’re ending our coverage. Thank you for being with us.

Today’s live page team included Sharanya Hrishikesh, Zoya Mateen, Anshul Verma, Andrew Clarence and Meryl Sebastian.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have much to celebrate today - the former is set to retain power in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and nearly at the halfway mark in Goa and Manipur, while the latter posted a spectacular win in Punjab.

As counting wraps up, the day clearly belongs to the two men who created history in their respective states - incumbent Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and future Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann.

In UP, Mr Adityanath led the BJP to victory for a second straight term, breaking a jinx of more than a quarter century.

Mr Mann’s popularity with voters helped his party soar to a convincing win in Punjab - the first state outside Delhi where AAP will form a government. The victory will boost AAP’s national ambitions and encourage it to expand its presence in other states.

These are the other big takeaways from the day:

• In Manipur, incumbent chief minister N Biren Singh from the BJP defeated his Congress rival by a handsome margin
• Incumbent Goa CM Pramod Sawant survived a scare in Sanquelim before winning by a few hundred votes - but even if the BJP forms the government, there is no guarantee he will return as CM
• Some other incumbent and former chief ministers faced major disappointments.
• Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi lost from both the seats he contested, adding insult to the Congress’s injury
• Two other former CMs from Punjab, Amarinder Singh and Parkash Singh Badal, also lost their seats. Mr Badal's son Sukhbir Singh Badal also lost, outlining the major challenge before the 100-year-old Shiromani Akali Dal in the state
• Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami lost from Khatima even as his party, the BJP, was set to return to power in the state
• Giving him company was former CM Harish Rawat, who led the Congress’s campaign in the state - he lost from Lalkuwa

As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) celebrate their wins, some big candidates are mourning their unexpected defeat.

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Punjab's incumbent Congress Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi not only failed to lead his party to victory, but also lost in both seats he contested - Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur.

The Congress' decision to pick the low-profile leader from the Dalit (formerly untouchable) community as its chief minister struck many as a smart move. It was meant to appeal to the sizeable Dalit vote as well as silence big egos in the party. But the day ended badly for Mr Channi and his party.

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Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who led the Congress to an impressive victory in 2017, has lost his first election since quitting the party.

He had contested from his traditional seat of Patiala Urban - which he had won in every election since 2002. But this time he was representing his brand new party, Punjab Lok Congress.

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The normally loquacious Navjot Singh Sidhu has been silent since conceding defeat in his Amritsar East seat earlier in the day.

The cricketer-turned-politician was in the BJP before he switched to the Congress - he won on their ticket in 2017. He spent the months leading up to the election needling Mr Singh until the latter resigned.

Veteran politicians Sukhbir Singh Badal and Parkash Singh Badal, both members of the regional Shiromani Akali Dal, lost their seats in the Punjab assembly for the first time in decades.

Parkash Singh Badal lost the Lambi seat by 11,000 votes, and his son, Sukhbir Singh Badal, lost by 31,000 votes in Jalalabad.

Swami Prasad Maurya, a former Uttar Pradesh minister from the politically crucial Other Backward Class (OBC) - a swathe of lower and intermediate castes - resigned from the BJP and joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) in a blaze of publicity earlier this year.

But he is set to lose his Fazilnagar seat by a sizeable margin to a BJP candidate.

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Keshav Prasad Maurya, the deputy CM of UP, who was the BJP’s OBC face in this election is trailing behind the Samajwadi Party candidate by around 2,000 votes.

Pushkar Singh Dhami, the BJP’s incumbent CM from Uttarakhand lost from the Khatima seat even as his party looks set to retain power.

Harish Rawat, the former Congress chief minister from Uttarakhand, lost from the Lalkuwa seat.

Zoya Mateen
BBC News, Delhi

The BJP appears to be within touching distance of a historic moment in Manipur - for the first time, the party has enough seats to form the government on its own.

It is currently leading in 30 seats - just one short of the 31 required to reach the halfway mark in the 60-member assembly. Chief Minister N Biren Singh has, despite months of infighting, emerged victorious in Heingang for the fifth consecutive term.

He has also faced stiff criticism on a host of issues, including his government's refusal to repeal AFSPA, a controversial law that gives the army sweeping powers in a region with a history of separatism.

The party has ruled the state in alliances with smaller parties since 2017 but this time, it contested all 60 seats.

If the BJP does manages to secure a simple majority, it would be a significant boost to its presence in India's north-east. Of course, things could change at the last minute as they did in 2017 when the Congress, despite being the single-largest party, failed to form the government.

Since winning parliamentary elections in 2014, the BJP has formed a government or is part of the ruling coalition in six out of seven north-eastern states.

Reality Check

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Well-known actor and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member, Hema Malini, has said that the safety of women improved in Uttar Pradesh after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took charge in 2017.

“Yogiji has given security to women. Security was in bad shape previously,” she told the Indian news channel, NDTV.

This claim also came up during election rallies and campaigns in the state, but it is not really borne out by the available data.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, the total number of recorded crimes against women was 156,634 for the period from 2013 to 2016 inclusive.

If you look at the years after the BJP’s took charge - from 2017 to 2020 inclusive, the figure for the total number of crimes against women goes up to 224,694 - a rise of 43%.

But the number of rape cases reported in that period did fall by 2.3% compared with the previous four years.

However, a report by the National Commission for Women (NCW) showed that of the 31,000 complaints about abuse or harassment received by them nationally in 2021, over half came from Uttar Pradesh state.

The Ram temple at Ayodhya - a grand new shrine that will stand on a site that was once contested between Hindus and Muslims - has been a big part of the BJP's campaign in Uttar Pradesh.

The temple is being built on the site where the Babri Masjid was torn down by Hindu mobs in 1992, fulfilling a decades-long promise by the BJP.

Analysts say the upcoming temple has paid rich political dividends to the BJP.

But beyond the main temple, the city is dotted with smaller and older shrines which priests say need to be preserved.

The BBC's Nitin Srivastava and Neha Sharma report.

India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looks set for a comfortable win in the bellwether state of Uttar Pradesh.

BBC Hindi's Nitin Srivastava reports from the BJP office in Lucknow, where celebrations have begun.

Image source, Twitter/Sadanand Shet Tanavade

BJP looks set to return in Goa with wins in 14 seats and leads in six more, taking it to the halfway mark.

The party said it also had the support of three independent lawmakers and the Maharashtra Gomantak Party, a former ally, and would stake claim to form government on Thursday evening.

Reports showed BJP leader Vishwajit Rane crying with joy in his car as he left a counting centre in Valpoi.

Rane's wife Deviya was also leading in the Poriem seat.

On whether incumbent chief minister Pramod Sawant would return to the post, Rane told news agency ANI that it was a "sensitive question".

Mr Sawant won by a few hundred votes in Sanquelim. He credited the win to party workers. "It was very challenging for me because I was campaigning state-wise but couldn't reach my own constituency," he told reporters.

Meanwhile, a disgruntled Atanasio Monserrate, BJP candidate in Panaji, told reporters he won the seat despite the party working for his rival Utpal Parrikar. Utpal is the son of veteran BJP leader Manohar Parrikar, who died in 2019.

Zoya Mateen
BBC News, Delhi

Image source, Getty Images

When Uttar Pradesh - one of India’s most polarised states - went to the polls, the spotlight was on its 40 million Muslims who constitute nearly 20% of the state’s population.

Lynchings, hate speech and violent crimes against Muslims have routinely made headlines under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who has openly pursued his party’s Hindu nationalist agenda.

Ahead of voting, members of the community told the BBC they felt like they had been reduced to "second-class citizens".

But with election results pouring in and the verdict clearly in favour of the BJP - the party is well past the majority mark - the marginalisation of Muslims seems to have had little impact on the party's prospects.

In fact its focus on Hindu majoritarianism seems to have been the right distraction from economic woes - and its welfare measures also proved effective.

Mr Adityanath had touted his hard stance on crime in the campaign - but critics say the state is safer for some more than others.

And they fear that the BJP's win would further embolden its leaders' anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Read more here on the fear and anxiety among Muslim voters in Uttar Pradesh.

Rushati Mukherjee
BBC News, Delhi

Election season in India is a busy time for television channels as they race to cover every aspect - offering analysis, predictions and trivia along the way - of the massive electoral exercise.

But sometimes, overly eager anchors resort to unusual tactics, becoming the butt of internet jokes and memes.

In a particularly hectic episode on India News that has gone viral, news anchors Pradeep Bhandari and Rajeev Sharma pace the length of the screen, predicting polls.

And then, one of them drops to the floor to do push-ups on live TV!

He says that the number of push ups he does would predict the number of seats the Congress would win in Uttar Pradesh.

He manages only three.

The Congress has fallen one seat short of his prediction.

In pursuit of a Hindu statepublished at 10:39 Greenwich Mean Time 10 March 2022

10:39 GMT 10 March 2022

Rajini Vaidyanathan
BBC South Asia Correspondent

In April 2021, I talked to a young man whose father died, unable to get a hospital bed or oxygen.

“I’ll never vote for the BJP and Yogi again,” he told me, fresh with grief.

But a few weeks ago, as I spent time with right-wing Hindu nationalists campaigning for the BJP, Covid wasn’t the primary topic on the doorstep.

Most voters we met felt the BJP’s brand of Hindu nationalism was the answer to the state's problems.

“This isn’t an election, it’s a religious war,” one member of the Hindu Yuva Vahini group, founded by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath told me. Others said they’d be prepared to go to any lengths in pursuit of a Hindu state.

And this wasn’t just a fringe view – voters we chatted to seemed to agree that this brand of nationalism was a path to their prosperity.

Uttar Pradesh is a Hindu majority state, which has become the epicentre of Hindu nationalist politics and policies. But it’s also becoming increasingly polarised.

The continued dominance of the BJP in the state will embolden the campaigners we met, but it will also raise fears among minorities, who feel another term of the BJP will diminish their rights, and India’s secular values.

Rahul Gandhi, the main opposition leader, has said that he accepts the voters' verdict - and that the Congress party would learn from these elections.

Mr Gandhi's tweet follows Congress' rout in all five state polls today.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is well past the halfway mark in the bellwether state of Uttar Pradesh - it's holding on to its lead in 247 of the state's 403 seats.

This will be the first time an incumbent party returns to power here in 37 years.

BBC Hindi's Vineet Khare reports from the BJP headquarters in Delhi.

Image source, get

The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) shrewd choice of Bhagwant Mann as its face in the Punjab election has paid off spectacularly - he is set to be the party’s first chief minister in the northern state.

The 48-year-old Mr Mann - who has only been in politics for around a decade - is a much-loved public figure in Punjab. He began performing stand-up comedy at youth festivals when he was a college student, and soon shot to fame through parody albums and TV appearances.

His jokes and spoofs on major political issues such as inflation and corruption established him in the minds of thousands as a man bent on changing the system.

He joined the People's Party of Punjab - which set itself up as a “clean” alternative to traditional political parties - in 2011 before switching to AAP in 2014. Since then, he has won two parliamentary elections and become the AAP’s most popular local face.

At his well-attended rallies, he draws massive cheers with his one-liners and ditties.

His rivals often point to his alleged alcoholism as a flaw - Mr Mann swore publicly in 2019 that he wouldn’t drink again - but that has had little impact on voters.

While AAP celebrates, Mr Mann’s next role - as chief minister - will be his most challenging yet.

Punjab is mired in crises - its young people, desperate for well-paying jobs, are flying abroad; others are struggling to make a living from agriculture.

Punjab’s new chief minister will have his hands full trying to fix the state.

Meryl Sebastian
BBC News, Delhi

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It's a close race in Ayodhya, a district which is home to the holy town that has been a big part of the BJP's campaign in Uttar Pradesh.

Unlike 2017, when the BJP won four of the five seats in Ayodhya district - the party’s candidates are leading in just three seats now. The district recorded a higher voter turnout this year than in 2017.

It wooed voters here with a grand new temple, which stands on what was once a contested site between Hindus and Muslims. A medieval mosque on the site was demolished in 1992 by Hindu mobs who claimed it was built on the ruins of temple.

The BJP promised to turn Ayodhya into a tourist hub connected by new highways, a revamped railway station and an airport.

It looks set to retain the Rudauli and Ayodhya assembly seats. In Bikapur, it is looking to flip the seat from Samajwadi Party (SP).

But in Milkipur and Gosaiganj, both seats won by the BJP in the last election, the party is in a close race with the SP.

The Hindu hardliner who scripted election historypublished at 09:23 Greenwich Mean Time 10 March 2022

09:23 GMT 10 March 2022

Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Image source, Getty Images

With the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) set to win a second consecutive term in Uttar Pradesh, the focus is on incumbent chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

The saffron-robed Hindu monk-turned-politician led the party to victory despite there having been no apparent electoral wave in his favour.

A highly controversial figure, Mr Adityanath is loved and loathed in equal measure. Critics describe him as India's most divisive and abusive politician who often uses his election rallies to whip up anti-Muslim hysteria.

He has also been criticised for his poor management of the economy and the Covid pandemic.

And yet he has delivered a crucial victory in the bellwether state ahead of the 2024 parliamentary election.

But rumour mills in the state have been busy with news of a major rift between the monk and the top BJP leadership.

Is this true? And if so, what does it mean for Mr Adityanath’s political future?

Read the analysis here.

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In Uttar Pradesh, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to return to power, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is leading in the Gorakhpur Urban seat.

Around 2.30 pm local time, he was ahead of his Samajwadi Party (SP) rival by more than 37,000 votes. He has won several elections from the constituency, considered his stronghold.

Young Dalit leader Chandrasekhar “Ravan” Azad - who had issued a defiant challenge to Mr Adityanath - has got just over 3,000 votes until now.

SP leader Akhilesh Yadav is set to win decisively in Karhal, a party stronghold, where he is up against two big names from the Bahujan Samaj Party and the BJP.

Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya - who led the BJP’s push to win over crucial Other Backward Classes (OBCs) as several leaders from the community left the party - is trailing the SP’s Pallavi Patel by around 2,000 votes from the Sirathu seat. OBCs are a group of myriad middle-ranking castes who are disadvantaged compared with upper castes.

Swami Prasad Maurya, a former BJP minister who jumped ship to the SP months ago, is staring at a defeat in Fazilnagar to the BJP’s Surendra Kumar Kushwaha.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading in 47 of Uttarakhand's 70 seats, and looks to set to retain power in the state.

Its performance has surprised analysts who predicted a close finish.

The BBC's Raghavendra Rao speaks to voters in the state capital, Dehradun.

The BJP is well past the halfway mark in Uttar Pradesh, and is holding on to its lead in 247 of the state's 403 seats.

Unlike in 2017, when the BJP's win was seen as part of a Modi wave sweeping through the country, this time the party's likely win is also seen as a mandate for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Click here to follow results from all five states.

And here’s a more detailed primer on why the election in Uttar Pradesh matters.

Brand Modi triumphs despite price rise and unemploymentpublished at 08:41 Greenwich Mean Time 10 March 2022

08:41 GMT 10 March 2022

Vikas Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Image source, Getty Images

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) impending win in three of the five states where votes are being counted is effectively a victory for brand Modi. The party may still form the government in a fourth state, Goa, where the race remains close.

Mr Modi led the campaign in all five states, but the victory in the bellwether state of Uttar Pradesh is the most crucial.

It sends 80 MPs to parliament – and a win here will embolden the BJP to eye a victory in the 2024 parliamentary elections. And Yogi Adityanath becomes the first chief minister to return to power in 37 years.

It's also remarkable because it comes in the wake of challenges that should considerably dent a party's performance, if not defeat it altogether.

Unemployment is high everywhere, fuel prices are on the rise and a devastating second wave of Covid struck the country less than a year ago.

But none of that seems to have mattered much in the face of Mr Modi’s appeal, which also rests on a plank of Hindu nationalism and last-mile delivery of welfare schemes.

Are these results an indication of what’s to come in 2024? The BJP will likely be the dominant party in the next general election but two years is a long time in politics.

Mr Modi still has to tackle inflation and unemployment even as the world economy braces for a fallout from the Ukraine crisis.

For now, opposition parties need to return to the drawing board for a strategy that can take on brand Modi in upcoming elections.