Yesterday, voters made their voice heard through the results. Today, let's see how some of them are reacting to the developments of yesterday.

Aditya Krishna is a 20-year-old first-time voter from Uttar Pradesh, a Hindi heartland state that has the potential to sway national politics as it sends 80 MPs to parliament.

The state has been a stronghold of the BJP in the past two elections - in 2019, it won 62 out of 80 seats in 2019 and 71 in 2014. It has won only 33 this time.

Mr Krishna says that he is unhappy that the BJP, which he voted for, did not perform well in the state. "The results weren't as I had expected," he says.

But he also says that whichever party forms the government, they should think about creating jobs for the youth.

"Only then will we be able to support our families," he says.

He also wants the next government to reduce the cost of education and healthcare keeping the poor in mind.

"The country had become a lot safer under the BJP's rule, and that's a good thing," he adds.

The opposition INDIA alliance, led by the Congress party defied exit poll predictions to win a total of 232 seats. Here's is a breakdown of who got how much.

• Congress - 99
• Samajwadi Party (SP) - 37
• Trinamool Congress (TMC) - 29
• Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) - 22
• Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackrey) - 9
• Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) - 8
• Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) - 4
• Communist Party of India (Marxist) - 4
• Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) - 3
• Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) - 3
• Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) - 3
• Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) - 2
• Jammu & Kashmir National Conference (JKN) - 2
• Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) - 2
• Kerala Congress (KEC) - 1
• Revolutionary Socialist Party - 1
• Rashtriya Loktantrik Party - 1
• Bharat Adivasi Party - 1
• Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) - 1

Image source, Getty Images

So as we know, this turned out to be an election where alliances mattered more than ever. So it's useful to know which party is in which coalition and how many seats they got. First up, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by PM Modi's BJP has 293 seats. Here's how many seats each party in the alliance won:

• BJP - 240
• Telugu Desam Party (TDP) - 16
• Janata Dal (United) - 12
• Shiv Sena (Shinde) - 7
• Lok Janashakti Party (Ram Vilas) - 5
• Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) - 2
• Janata Dal (Secular) - JD(S) - 2
• Janasena Party - 2
• United People’s Party, Liberal - 1
• Asom Gana Parishad - 1
• Apna Dal (Soneylal) - 1
• Sikkim Krantikari Morcha - SKM - 1
• Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) - HAMS- 1
• AJSU Party (AJSUP) - 1
• Nationalist Congress Party - 1

Image source, Getty Images

Geeta Pandey
Reporting from Delhi

Image source, Getty Images

Akhilesh Yadav, leader of the regional Samajwadi Party (SP) in the bellwether state of Uttar Pradesh, is being seen as the biggest success story of this election.

Yadav’s party, which is a part of the opposition INDIA alliance, won 37 of the 80 seats in the state. With Congress winning six seats, the BJP’s tally has been restricted to a poor 33. Mr Modi's party won 62 out of 80 seats in 2019 and took 71 in 2014.

In the run-up to the election, Mr Modi had described Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav as “a pair of boys” whose alliance had “flopped” many times in the past.

But as the results show, they have slashed the BJP's numbers in the state comfortably.

Three key takeaways from a surprising electionpublished at 10:12 British Summer Time 5 June

10:12 BST 5 June

Michael Kugelman
Director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre

The BJP’s disappointing electoral performance marks its most humbling political moment in a decade, and it delivers a major boost to an opposition alliance that’s struggled to translate some recent successes in state politics to victories on the national stage.

The election offers three notable takeaways.

• First, never trust the exit polls - even when all of them, including the few , externalthat accurately predicted previous election results, make the same predictions of a massive BJP victory. Many pollsters now have egg on their faces.

• Second, bread-and-butter issues matter. In dissecting the BJP’s electoral setback, one can talk about poor electoral decisions, external, backlashes to Hindu nationalism, and anti-incumbency. But let’s not overlook economic stress, especially youth unemployment. Modi has staked his political success in part on India’s economic growth story. But with large numbers of unemployed young people in a nation with a massive youth bulge, that strategy was bound to backfire at some point.

• Third, electoral democracy is alive. High turnout, external, competitive polls, and a result that’s unlikely to be disputed attest to the strength of Indian elections - in a region with recent cases of rigged or non-credible elections and, in Taliban-led Afghanistan, where elections don’t happen at all.

If you're just joining us, here's a quick recap of what has happened so far:

• The final results for the general elections in India are in and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP-led alliance is on course to retain power for a third time.
• His NDA bloc secured 293 seats – above the 272-mark needed to form a government
• But there have been big setbacks - his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has failed to win an outright majority in the parliament for the first time in 10 years. It won 240 seats, down from 303 in 2019.
• The opposition coalition INDIA, on the other hand, has performed far better than expected, securing 232 seats.
• They have not conceded so far and are meeting today to discuss their next steps.
• As of now, the BJP's allies have expressed support to the party, but things can get interesting if regional parties decide to switch sides.

We will know more in the next few hours - stay tuned!

Image source, Getty Images

One of the BJP's shock losses this election was in Uttar Pradesh's Faizabad seat, which is home to the temple town of Ayodhya.

The BJP's Lallu Singh lost to opposition alliance candidate Awadhesh Prasad by a margin of more than 54,000 votes.

This loss is significant because Ayodhya is where Modi inaugurated the Ram temple in January.

Hindus believe the site to be the birthplace of Lord Ram. A 16th-Century mosque which stood at the same site was torn down by right-wing Hindu mobs in 1992, sparking riots in which nearly 2,000 people died.

After decades of legal battles, India's top court ruled that the site should be given to Hindus. It gave land elsewhere to Muslims to build a mosque.

The inauguration was seen as an informal launch of the BJP's campaign and it was expected to energise its base.

But that appears to have not happened in Ayodhya.

Earlier this year, the BBC's Soutik Biswas reported there was anger among residents over the number of homes and shops smashed by bulldozers in the city to rebuild it as a pilgrim destination and the delay in due compensation.

Archana Shukla
India business correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Indian markets are seeing a rebound on Wednesday, a day after losing more than $386bn in what was the worst crash in four years.

Markets were spooked after results emerging yesterday showed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP would fall short of a clear majority on its own, requiring help from allies to form a government.

The key benchmark indices, the Sensex and the Nifty, had lost all the gains made this year in just one day.

Analysts say the shock element is slowly subsiding but expect the markets to remain volatile in the short-term.

Stocks of finance and consumer companies are leading the gains today but infrastructure and state-run companies, which saw the sharpest fall on Tuesday, are still under strain.

So now that you're caught up on the main abbreviations, let's see where the big parties and alliances stand.

As you know, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP couldn't win 272 seats by itself - the number required to form the government independently. This is where the party and the main blocs stand after the results:

BJP - 240 seats

NDA (National Democratic Alliance, led by the BJP) - 293 seats

INDIA (the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) - 232 seats

You're likely to come across quite a few acronyms on this live page. Here is a ready reckoner of the big ones you need to know:

*BJP: The Bharatiya Janata Party, which governs India - the party and leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi are looking to return for a third term in power. They have emerged as the single-largest party but haven't reached the halfway mark on their own.

*INDIA: Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, a coalition of opposition parties including the once-dominant Congress party. This coalition also hasn't reached the halfway mark but has performed much better than expected.

*NDA: National Democratic Alliance, a coalition of parties led by the BJP.

Apart from these, many regional parties are also commonly known by acronyms from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP - in power in Delhi and Punjab) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC - governs West Bengal).

The lower house of India's parliament is called the Lok Sabha and has 543 seats.

The Indian election is held every five years to choose the MPs for the Lok Sabha.

Members are elected for a five-year term to represent a single constituency, the winner being the candidate who gets the most votes.

Of the 543 seats, 131 are reserved for MPs from the 'scheduled castes' and 'scheduled tribes' - groups that are officially recognised as disadvantaged and make up about a quarter of India's population.

A party or an alliance that crosses the halfway mark of 272 seats can form the government.

Cherylann Mollan
Reporting from Mumbai

Image source, Getty Images

One MP who will get a lot of attention in the new parliament is Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut, a BJP candidate who defeated a popular Congress leader in Himachal Pradesh state.

The battle in Mandi constituency was one of the most high-profile contests this election, with reporters making a beeline to the state to cover Ms Ranaut's campaign. Her opponent Vikramaditya Singh is a Congress veteran and the son of a former state chief minister.

Ranaut has often described herself as a fan of Mr Modi and his party's Hindu nationalist politics even before she officially joined the BJP.

She has also been in several controversies in the past. In 2021, her Twitter account was suspended for two years over a tweet that allegedly incited violence. It was restored last year.

Arshdeep Kaur
BBC Punjabi

Image source, BBC Punjabi

We've already told you about Amritpal Singh and why he is controversial - and here is a little more about Sarabjit Singh Khalsa, the other independent candidate to win in Punjab.

Khalsa is the son of Beant Singh, one of the two bodyguards who assassinated prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

Khalsa, who has unsuccessfully run for election three times before, defeated his opponent by a margin of 70,053 votes.

This time, his campaign started picking up steam close to the elections and the Indian Express newspaper reports that his roadshows received a massive response.

During his campaign, he raised some issues such as the sacrilege of Sikh scriptures, which are sensitive in Punjab.

He dedicated his victory to people and requested supporters not to celebrate his victory until 7 June, which is the 40th anniversary of Operation Blue Star, a controversial military operation in 1984 that was aimed at flushing out Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple.

Surinder Mann
BBC Punjabi

Image source, Getty Images

While we wait to hear more about the opposition meeting in Delhi, we're still bringing you more highlights from the eventful results.

From Khadoor Sahib seat in the northern state of Punjab, jailed Sikh separatist Amritpal Singh has won by a margin of 197,000 votes. The self-styled preacher is currently in the high-security Dibrugarh jail in Assam state - his family and supporters ran his campaign for him.

The 31-year-old was arrested in April last year after a month-long police manhunt - his calls for the creation of a separate Sikh homeland in India had riled authorities, and he and his supporters were accused of attempted murder after storming a police station.

Singh is one of two independent candidates who won in Punjab, which sends 13 MPs to parliament.

Experts attribute his victory to the growing discontent among voters who feel that no major political party has done enough to address their problems - like a debilitating drug crisis, unemployment and rising state debt.

Before his arrest, Singh often spoke about the drug crisis in the state. In fact, his election campaign focused more on that than separatist ideas.

Image source, ANI

We have heard from N Chandrababu Naidu, whose Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is part of the BJP-led NDA bloc - he will be in Delhi later today to meet coalition leaders.

As we have reported, the TDP is crucial for the stability of Mr Modi's government as the BJP alone does not have the 272 MPs needed to stay in power.

Mr Naidu did not directly comment on the formation of the government but said: "We are in NDA, I’m going to the NDA meeting."

"I am experienced and have seen several political changes in this country," he added.

The TDP-BJP alliance also swept the state elections, which were held in Andhra Pradesh alongside the national election. The TDP also emerged as the party with the most parliamentary seats (16) in the state, while the BJP won 3.

"I am very glad for the support of the voters," he said.

Soutik Biswas
India Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Narendra Modi has never run a coalition government where his party alone did not have absolute majority. The strongman of Indian politics has always prided himself on being decisive and delivering on his promises since taking power in 2014. His tenure includes controversial decisions like a 2016 currency ban and polarising actions such as revoking Kashmir’s special status in 2019.

But for the first time, Mr Modi will have to work with two key allies just to be able to stay in power: the regional TDP and JD(U). Both are led by veteran, astute leaders who have previously served in BJP-led coalition cabinets in the past but left over differences with the ruling party, specifically with Mr Modi.

Politics makes for strange bedfellows. Will Mr Modi manage a coalition with these former foes-turned-allies? We don't know the answer yet.

Vikas Pandey
Reporting from Delhi

Two names have dominated Indian political discussions since yesterday, and we are not talking about the obvious ones - Prime Minister Narendra Modi or opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.

All attention is now on N Chandrababu Naidu, who leads the regional TDP party, and NItish Kumar, the chief of the regional JD(U) party.

The BJP by itself has fallen short of reaching the halfway mark of 272 seats to form a government and they need their allies - mainly the TDP and the JD(U) - to stick with them to form a government and stay in power.

Mr Modi has declared victory and appears confident of beginning his third term in power.

Image source, Getty Images

But here's what is interesting - both the TDP and JD(U) are former Congress allies and joined Mr Modi's bloc a few months before the elections.

They have not given any indication that they will leave the BJP's alliance in favour of the opposition. But regional parties in India are not averse to springing surprises.

It's worth noting that the Congress bloc has not accepted defeat - their leaders are meeting today and will reveal their next moves after that.

Is there a surprise in the offing? We have to wait for the next few hours.

Image source, BJP

The elections results would have given Narendra Modi and his party plenty to chew over, but there's one thing they would be happy about: getting their first parliamentary seat in the southern state of Kerala.

Actor Suresh Gopi won by a margin of more than 74,000 votes from Thrissur seat in the state. Mr Gopi, who joined the BJP in 2016, is a popular actor in Kerala with a decades-long career in the state's film industry.

He was a member of the upper house of the Indian parliament from the BJP from 2016 to 2022 and was the party's candidate from the same seat in the 2019 election but came third then.

Kerala only has 20 seats in the lower house of India's parliament, but the BJP had been trying hard to make headway here. In the past few months, Mr Modi has visited the state several times, holding well-attended rallies and roadshows.

Like in 2019, the Congress has done well in the state, which is religiously diverse (according to the last census in 2011, 27% of Kerala's 33 million people are Muslims and 18% are Christians). But the BJP gave both it and the Left alliance a tough fight in some seats.

At the state level, Kerala's voters have usually oscillated between a Congress-led alliance and a coalition of Left parties. Mr Gopi's win give the BJP hope that it can grow much more in the state.

Meryl Sebastian
BBC News, Delhi

Image source, Getty Images

Prajwal Revanna, an MP from the southern state of Karnataka, lost his bid to be re-elected from Hassan seat.

Mr Revanna, grandson of former Indian prime minister HD Deve Gowda, is accused of rape and sexual abuse but has denied the allegations against him.

He was the ruling NDA alliance's candidate from Hassan and lost to Congress's Shreyas M Patel by more than 46,000 votes.

The former lawmaker had fled the country in April after thousands of videos of the alleged sexual abuse circulated in Hassan days before the constituency was due to vote.

Police in India arrested him last week after he returned from Germany to the southern Indian city of Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore).

Image source, Getty Images

As we wait for more updates today, let's take a look at the seats that sprang surprises in the election:

• In Amethi, a bastion of the Gandhi family, long-time aide Kishori Lal toppled federal minister Smriti Irani
• In Narendra Modi's Varanasi seat, the prime minister won by a much lower margin compared to his 2019 and 2014 victories from the same constituency
• The BJP lost in Faizabad, where Modi inaugurated a grand Ram temple in January in the flashpoint Ayodhya city
• In Mumbai's North West constituency, an NDA alliance candidate won by a mere 48 votes
• For the first time in a decade, the Congress won a seat in Modi’s home state of Gujarat
• The BJP won its first ever seat in the southern state of Kerala with actor Suresh Gopi's win
• Its neighbour Tamil Nadu kept the party out entirely as the INDIA bloc swept all 39 seats in the state