The counting of votes in the Lok Sabha elections will start at 8am on Thursday. The fate of over 8,000 candidates who contested in the 542 constituencies will be decided on Thursday, as will the future of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi's NDA has been touted as the favourite to win the election by all major national exit polls.
In addition to the Lok Sabha elections, counting will also be held for the assembly elections held in four states: Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Nearly 67 per cent of the 90 crore eligible voters in India cast votes in the seven-phase Lok Sabha and assembly polls.
This will also be the first Lok Sabha election in which voter-verified paper trails (VVPAT) slips will be tallied with the EVM votes in five randomly selected assembly segment stations. This means VVPAT slips in over 20,000 booths of the 10.3 lakh stations will be tallied. As a result, the Election Commission has clarified clear trends may be seen later than previous elections.
