Cherylann Mollan
Reporting from Delhi

Image source, Getty Images

Maharashtra – India’s wealthiest state – emerged as one of the most-watched regions during this election because of the pre-poll political drama that dogged its major parties.

In 2022, the state’s triparty-government, formed by the former Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), and the Congress - called the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) - collapsed after lawmakers from the Shiv Sena allied with the BJP to form a new government.

In 2023, some lawmakers from the NCP split their party and joined the coalition government.

The split in the two age-old parties created a seismic shift in the state’s politics, which has traditionally seen a four-way contest between the Shiv Sena, NCP, Congress and the BJP.

Apart from losing power, both Shiv Sena and NCP also lost their original names and symbols as they were assigned to new factions made up by defecting lawmakers.

But according to current trends, it seems that the MVA alliance has succeeded in winning back power in the state by securing a majority in 29 of the 48 seats.

Things might not be going as well as anticipated for the BJP. The party has failed to reach the 272 mark needed to form the government on its own. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won from his constituency, Varanasi.

He won the seat by a margin of more than 152,000 votes - but this is quite low compared with his winning margins in the past two elections.

Since Mr Modi became the MP in 2014, the ancient city has gone through a modernisation drive which has mostly enjoyed support from the residents - though some have expressed reservations.

Our correspondent Raghvendra Rao reports from outside the BJP headquarters in the capital, where he says celebrations are "a bit muted" and the crowd size much smaller than previous elections.

According to current trends, the party has not managed to reach the 272 mark required to form the government.

It is still in the lead with the combined total of the ruling alliance being 298 seats, but party workers seem disheartened by what some call the BJP's lacklustre performance.

The BJP was hoping to win at least 30 seats from the state of Maharashtra which sends the second highest number of MPs - 48 - to parliament. But BBC Marathi's Prajakta Pol reports that the mood is sombre at the party office in Mumbai where trends show it leading in just 11 seats.

Vikas Pandey
Reporting from Delhi

The answer is simple: it's always easier to call elections when a party gets a clear majority.

Every election, final results from India's Election Commission are usually slow to land and it often gives a final tally the next day.

It's the media that usually declares winners and losers when it's confident enough of the numbers. But today, no Indian media outlet has done that so far.

One possible reason is that the BJP alone is unlikely to reach 272 - the number needed to form a government - making it hard to know what lies ahead.

Together with its allies, the party is leading in more than 290 seats. And that could be the issue - two of the BJP's allies - the Janata Dal (United) and the Telugu Desam Party - are leading in close to 30 seats when taken together.

The BJP's future now depends on them, but they joined the alliance just months before the elections.

They are yet to make a statement about their future plans, and that might be causing delays in newsrooms in calling the elections.

A few more hours of uncertainty lie ahead of us. Stay tuned!

Soutik Biswas
Reporting from Delhi

The powerful federal Home Minister Amit Shah seems well on his way to claim a second consecutive win from Gandhinagar in Gujarat, a seat held by the BJP since 1984.

Trends suggest he's leading by more than 700,000 votes over his closest rival, Sonal Patel of the opposition Congress.

The BJP aims for Mr Shah, 59, to secure a victory with a margin of at least a million votes, doubling his 2019 margin.

Mr Shah's connection to the Gandhinagar seat spans years - he has served as the election manager for veteran BJP leader LK Advani, who won the seat six times between 1991 and 2014.

In 1996, former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee contested and won from Gandhinagar. Mr Shah’s opponent, Ms Patel, with only one failed electoral attempt in the 2022 Assembly polls, faces an uphill battle.

Read more about Mr Shah here

Image source, Getty Images

Amarendra Yarlagadda
Reporting from Andhra Pradesh

In Andhra Pradesh state, which voted in both the general election and assembly polls, members of the regional Telugu Desam Party (TDP) are already celebrating.

Historically, the BJP has struggled to make its presence felt in the southern state, and this trend continued even after Andhra Pradesh was divided in 2014 to create another independent state, Telangana.

In the 2019 assembly elections and general elections too, the BJP failed to register a strong performance in Andhra Pradesh.

Regional parties like the TDP, Jana Sena Party and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) have continually held sway over voters.

But this year, the BJP’s alliance with the TDP and the Jana Sena Party seems to have brought about a positive outcome for the party.

According to trends so far, the tri-party alliance is maintaining a commanding lead in 21 Lok Sabha seats while the YSRCP is leading in just four.

Archana Shukla
India business correspondent, Mumbai

It was a sea of red in the country’s financial markets on Tuesday.

Both the benchmark indices - the Sensex and Nifty - crashed more than 8% in trade, the worst downfall in four years. Markets closed nearly 6% lower on Tuesday, recovering some losses during the day.

The biggest disappointment for the market, analysts say, is that PM Modi’s BJP may not get a majority on its own.

An investor said a major worry was perceived uncertainty over continuing investments in infrastructure and manufacturing - he added that governments with a clear majority take quick decisions.

Shares of infrastructure and capital goods companies, energy firms and state-run banks that gained on Monday saw the largest falls.

One of the steepest falls was in the Adani group companies, most of which operate in the infrastructure and energy sectors.

All Adani stocks crashed more than 20% in trade after seeing a record high rally on Monday.

The promoter Gautam Adani, among the world’s richest men, is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Vikas Pandey
Reporting from Delhi

The BJP won 303 seats on its own in 2019, well above the 272 needed to form a government.

Together with allies, it won 353 and earned a brute majority.

But it's becoming clear now that the BJP alone is unlikely to reach 272 and it will have to depend on its allies to form the government.

This will affect the centralised decision-making style of Mr Modi and he will now have to take allies into confidence before announcing key measures.

And that is something he is not used to because he has always run governments - both in Gujarat state and nationally - with absolute majority.

Yogita Limaye
Reporting from Delhi

Image source, Getty Images

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, considered the face of the opposition's INDIA alliance, is leading from both the seats he is contesting.

In Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala, he's leading by more than 350,000 votes. Considered a relatively "safe" seat, he first won from here in 2019.

He had, however, suffered a humiliating defeat last time from the second seat he contested - Amethi in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, considered a family bastion.

This time he left Amethi for another family stronghold, Rae Bareli – a seat vacated by his mother Sonia Gandhi (she is not contesting the election this time).

Mr Gandhi looks poised to win this seat as well, leading by more than 380,000 votes. This will be a crucial win for the leader, whose political capabilities are under fierce scrutiny.

If he wins both seats, he will have to give up one of them and a by-election will be held.

Saradha Venkatasubramanian
Reporting from Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Politics in the southern state of Tamil Nadu - it sends 39 MPs to parliament - has been dominated by regional parties Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).

The BJP mounted a spirited campaign this time to make inroads into the state, but local parties have proven to be too strong - the BJP has tried to combat its image of a pro-Hindi party in the state, which has seen fierce agitations in support of the Tamil language.

Current trends in the state show the INDIA alliance is headed for a sweep with leads in 38 seats - the DMK is ahead in 21 seats.

Image source, Saradha Venkatasubramanian/BBC

DMK members have begun gathering at the party headquarters in Chennai as celebrations start.

While the BJP had earlier seen some gains in the state due to an alliance with the AIADMK, it fought this election solo as the regional party grappled with a rift within itself.

A big blow for the party is that even its rising leader K Annamalai is trailing from the Coimbatore seat.

Image source, Saradha Venkatasubramanian/BBC

Imran Qureshi
Reporting from Bengaluru, Karnataka

The mood at the BJP office in Bengaluru is sombre.

Karnataka is one of the few states in southern India where the BJP has a strong foothold. In 2019, the party won 28 of the 29 parliament seats in the state. But the Congress party won the state election last year.

According to current trends, the BJP has won one seat and is leading in 15, while the Congress is ahead in 10.

State BJP leaders have tried to keep party workers enthused. "We will win. Narendra Modi will be prime minister," Dr CN Ashwath Narayan told them today.

In Hassan, Prajwal Revanna, an MP from the ruling NDA alliance who has been arrested for alleged rape and sexual abuse, is trailing behind his Congress rival Shreyas Patel by over 22,000 votes.

His uncle HD Kumaraswamy, a former state chief minister and leader of the Janata Dal (Secular), has established a huge lead in Mandya over his Congress rival Venkatarame Gowda.

Image source, Alphonse Vimulraj/BBC

The mood isn't upbeat at the Congress party office either, which is bereft of party workers. The Congress was hoping to win at least 15 seats in the state but some of its candidates are trailing, including in the key seat of Mysore.

Image source, Getty Images

Here's a breakdown of the party-wise leads at the moment (lots of acronyms here, as we mentioned earlier):

NDA alliance total: 294

BJP - 241

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) - 16

Janata Dal (United) - 14

Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) - 5

Janata Dal (Secular) - 2

Opposition INDIA alliance: 232

Congress - 99

Samajwadi Party - 35

Trinamool Congress- 29

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) - 21

Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) - 10

Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) - 7

Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) - 4

Communist Party of India (Marxist) - CPI(M) - 4

Meryl Sebastian
BBC News, Delhi

The opposition Congress party is leading in both seats in Manipur state, which has been witnessing violent ethnic clashes between its majority Meitei and minority Kuki communities for more than a year. More than 200 people have been killed in the violence.

The state made global headlines last year after a video emerged showing two Kuki women being paraded naked by a mob of Meitei men.

The Congress has frequently criticised the BJP - which is also in power in the state - for failing to stem the ethnic strife and Mr Modi for not visiting Manipur.

Mr Rahul Gandhi also began his country-wide justice march from the state earlier this year.

Image source, Getty Images

Zoya Mateen
Reporting from Delhi

Mahua Moitra is leading by over 46,500 votes in Krishnanagar, in West Bengal state.

A vocal critic of the BJP, Ms Moitra is an important opposition candidate to watch.

A member of the Trinamool Congress Party (TMC), she was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019 from this constituency.

Her fiery speeches in parliament - where she asked tough questions of Mr Modi's government - catapulted her to national prominence.

Image source, Getty Images

But last year, Ms Moitra was disqualified as an MP after a BJP lawmaker accused her of asking questions in parliament in exchange for bribes.

Ms Moitra denied the charges and said they were politically motivated, but she was expelled after an ethics panel report recommended the move - her party called the panel's report an "eyewash".

Despite the controversies, TMC nominated her from Krishnanagar again - and a win will be seen as a huge vindication for her.

Yogita Limaye
Reporting from Delhi

At the opposition Congress party's headquarters in capital Delhi, the trends of the election are being screened on a huge TV.

Celebrations are in full swing in the office, even though trends suggest that the ruling NDA alliance is in the lead,

But, the opposition INDIA bloc, of which the Congress is a member, is performing far better than expected.

It’s rare to find this kind of jubilation in a side that trends suggest is losing.

But the Congress has suffered such a series of humiliating setbacks over the past 10 years that the current trends must surely be heartening to party workers.

When we met party workers at the start of the election, many did not believe they could launch any challenge against the BJP.

So today, the celebration here is about being significantly back in the game.

The reason the word INDIA keeps popping up (in caps) on this page is because - apart from being the name of the country - it is also what the coalition of opposition parties is called.

INDIA stands for the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance and consists of 28 opposition parties - including the main opposition Congress party.

According to early trends, the INDIA bloc seems to be proving exit polls wrong and giving a tough fight to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in this election.

NDA stands for National Democratic Alliance and is a coalition of parties led by the governing BJP party.

It includes several prominent national as well as regional parties.

Current trends suggest that the NDA is leading in nearly 300 of the 543 constituencies in India. A coalition or party needs to win 272 seats to form the government.

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

A party or coalition needs a majority of 272 seats to form the government.

During his party's election campaign, Mr Modi had said the BJP would win 370 seats. Its NDA alliance was aiming to cross the 400-seat mark.

But as the trends show, the BJP and NDA are far from these numbers currently.