New Delhi, July 21 (IANS) A record 60.14 per cent military and paramilitary personnel and those deployed in Indian missions abroad used the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) to vote in the Lok Sabha elections.

The ETPBS is a flagship IT programme of the Election Commission that empowers people eligible to vote but posted far away from their homes to vote electronically.

In the seven-phase general election 2019, a record 18,02,646 eligible personnel were enrolled and 10,84,266 voted through e-postal ballots, an EC statement said.

In contrast, the voting in this category was only 4 per cent in 2014.

Persons working in paramilitary forces and the military and government officials deployed in diplomatic missions outside India are classified as Service Voters.

According to the EC, over eight lakh service more voters were enrolled for the 2019 elections compared to 13,27,627 in 2014.

Of the total, 10,16,245 were from Defence Ministry, 7,82,595 from Home Ministry (Central Armed Police Forces); 3,539 from External Affairs Ministry and 267 from state police.

The EC said the record voting was possible because of ETPBS, which was among one of its kind initiatives adopted by the poll panel this year.

Enabled through the dedicated portal https://www.servicevoter.eci.nic.in online registration, the service voters for the first time were sent postal ballots electronically one way to save processing time, resources and avoid human errors.

"A total of 18,02,646 postal ballots were dispatched electronically using the flagship IT programme ETPBS. In return, 10,84,266 e-postal ballots were received indicating 60.14 per cent turnout," the EC statement said.

The poll panel said ETPBS was a fully secured system, having two security layers.

"Secrecy of voting is maintained through the use of OTP (One Time Password) and PIN and no duplication of casted ETPB is possible due to the unique QR Code in the portal https://www. etpbs.in.," the EC said.

The Commission said the purpose of the online system was to create convenient and easy-to-use online system for defence personnel to become Service Voters.

"With the motto 'no voter to be left behind', ETPBS has empowered and ensured all eligible service electors with their constitutional power to vote while performing their duty for the nation," the Commission added.

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New Delhi, May 24 (IANS) Nearly 1.5 crore young "digital natives", most of whom cast their votes for the first time, chose to vote for Narendra Modi as India's next prime minister and Chinese short video-sharing app TikTok played a great role in creating a "Modi wave" among them.

While the seasoned members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were busy charting out strategies and organising rallies, the younger, tech-savvy karyakartas took charge of expanding Modi's digital presence across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter -- and TikTok.

TikTok, which claims to have over 120 million monthly active users in India, played a crucial part in circulating dialogues, speeches and candid reactions from Modi on smartphones across the length and breadth of the country.

"One day, my Instagram was flooded with TikTok videos showing Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Modi sharing hugs and winks during a Parliament session with 'Aankh maare, ladka aankh maare' song playing in the background. It will always be one of my favourites this election season," Riya Kalwani, content writer from Mumbai told IANS.

"Seriously, whoever took the time and energy to make these videos, hats off to them," she added.

The app-struck young voters took to the platform to record themselves, shouting the famous "Mitro" and "Iss baar fir Modi sarkar" videos, hash-tagged them with social media trends and shared those.

After Modi prefixed the word "Chowkidar" before his name on Twitter, TikTokers went berserk.

Not just individuals but families recorded themselves imitating Modi's "Aap aashvast rahiye, aapka ye chowkidar, poori tarah chowkanna hai" dialogue along with videos on the "Mein bhi chowkidar hu" songs.

"So many people did TikTok videos on 'Zyada se zyada ye mera kya kar lenge? Aree hum toh fakeer aadmi hai, jhola leke chal padenge' dialogue. It was everywhere. There was also this one where people have dubbed Modi discussing popular daily soap 'Ye rishta kya kehlata hai.' Just hilarious," said Deepika Tiwari, a media student.

Another TikTok video that trended showed a TV screen recording of Modi speaking in a session with a paper in hand and his supporters banging the table behind him in agreement along with a famous dialogue from Bollywood movie "Munna Bhai MBBS": 'Sir, bahar casualty mei koi marrne ki halat pe raha, toh usko form bharna zaroori hai kya?"

In addition to Hindi, several TikTok videos were shared in other regional languages including Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Gujarati and Bengali.

In an interview with Bollywood star Akshay Kumar, Modi said that he enjoys memes on the Internet.

The clip became a sensational TikTok topic that floated on social media platforms for quite a while.

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Bhubaneswar, May 24 (IANS) Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) President Niranjan Patnaik resigned on Friday after taking responsibility for the debacle in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

Patnaik said that he has already sent his resignation to All India Congress Committee (AICC) President Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress managed to get one Lok Sabha and nine Assembly seats. It even lost the status of being the main opposition party in the state as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged the second largest party relegating the Congress to the third position.

The PCC President himself lost the Assembly constituencies of Bhandaripokhari and Ghasipura.

In 2014, the Congress won 16 Assembly seats while it drew a blank in the Lok Sabha.

"Rahulji had given me the responsibility in consultation with the Congressmen of Odisha. I have tried sincerely to strengthen the Congress organisation in the state. Despite the efforts, we couldn't win people's confidence for which Congress has suffered this debacle in Odisha," Patnaik told the media.

"On moral grounds, I have tendered my resignation from this post of PCC President to our AICC President."

Niranjan was appointed as the PCC president in April 2018.

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New Delhi, May 24 (IANS) As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged four of the 17 seats in Telangana, an alarm has been sounded to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), which emerged as the largest party in the state with nine seats.

While vote share of both the BJP and TRS increased from the 2014 general elections, the latter's seat count declined by two.

The TRS's share in total votes polled is 41.3 per cent as against 34.9 per cent in 2014. On the other hand, the BJP almost doubled its base in the state as its vote share increased to 19.5 per cent from 10.5 per cent.

Congress' performance was slightly better this time as its vote share increased from 24.7 per cent in 2014 to 29.5 per cent in 2019. It has bagged three seats - an increase of one seat from the last time.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), led by Asaduddin Owaisi, won one seat with vote share of 2.8 per cent.

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Chandigarh, May 24 (IANS) BJP's candidate for Punjab's Amritsar Lok Sabha seat Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's historic victory was a tribute to the late Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee and a lesson for the Congress.

"The historic victory of Modi ji is a tribute to Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji and a lesson for Congress that when the earth trembles, big trees also fall," Puri, who unsuccessfully contested the election, said in a tweet.

Diplomat-turned-politician Puri faced a tough straight fight in the constituency dominated by the Jat community, and lost by 99,626 votes from his Congress rival Gurjit Aujla.

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AIMIM candidate, journalist-turned-politician Imtiyaz Jaleel Syed trounced the sitting four-time Sena senior leader Chandrakant Khaire in a see-saw drama that ended at around 4 a.m. on Friday.

Syed and Khaire kept leading-trailing each other in several rounds and counts since Thursday evening.

Until then, Jaleel was in a comfortable position, but the tables apparently reversed when the rural areas votes were taken up for counting.

Finally, he was declared elected with a margin of 4,492 votes over Khaire - giving the AIMIM its first MP from Maharashtra.

In an encore of the 41-seat 2014 performance in the 2019 polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena alliance on Thursday swept the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, winning 23 (of 25 it contested) and 18 (of 23 it contested) seats respectively, of the state's total 48 seats.

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) bagged four, one went to AIMIM, and one to Independent-backed by Opposition, South Indian film actress Navnit Kaur R. Rana, who captured Amravati.

The lone Congress warrior, Suresh Dhanorkar trounced BJP's Union Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir by a margin of around 44,000 votes to capture the Chandrapur seat.

Even the ally Sena lost its Cabinet Minister Anant Geete to NCP strongman Sunil Tatkare in Raigad.

From the Congress, two former Chief Ministers Ashok Chavan and Sushilkumar Shinde were trounced in Nanded and Solapur respectively, by the BJP.

Nilesh Rane -- the son of former Chief Minister Narayan Rane and President of Maharashtra Swabhiman Party -- was defeated by Shiv Sena in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, while Parth, the son of former NCP Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar lost in Maval.

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New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) As the Congress suffered another debacle in Lok Sabha polls, several senior leaders of the party including seven former Chief Ministers lost their contests and two were trailing with big margins.

Three-time Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit lost from Delhi North East, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat lost from Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was defeated from Sonipat, former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh lost from Bhopal, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde from Solapur, former Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma from Tura and former Karnataka Chief Minister Veerappa Moily lost from Chikkballapur.

Former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki was trailing behind Union Minister Kiren Rijiju in Arunchal West and in Maharashtra's Nanded, former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan is trailing behind Prataprao Patil Chikhalikar of the BJP.

While Shinde lost for the second consecutive time, Moily and Chavan were members of the outgoing Lok Sabha.

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Kolkata, May 23 (IANS) Union Minister and Darjeeling's outgoing BJP MP S.S. Ahluwalia on Thursday won West Bengal's Burdwan-Durgapur seat, defeating Trinamool Congress' Mamtaz Sanghamita by a slender margin of 2,439 votes.

Sanghamita won the seat in 2014 with a margin of 1,07,337 votes.

Former Trinamool MP Saumitra Khan who was expelled for "anti-party activity, and secured the saffron party's nomination from his old constituency Bishnupur, retained the seat by a margin of 78,047 votes over his nearest rival, Shyamal Santra of the Trinamool.

Khan is barred from entering the district for six weeks by the Calcutta High Court due to ongoing criminal cases against him. He was, however, allowed to file his nomination by the court, but the bar on his entry into most areas of the constituency remained, forcing his wife to do the campaigning on his behalf.

Trinamool's veteran Sougata Roy retained Dum Dum constituency, defeating his nearest rival BJP's Samik Bhattachrya by a margin of 53,002 votes.

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New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari on Thursday won the Delhi North East Lok Sabha seat, defeating his Congress rival and former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by a margin of 3,66,102 votes.

While Tiwari got 7,87,799 (53.9 per cent) votes, Dikshit got 4,21,697 (28.85 per cent) votes.

Aam Aadmi Party's Dilip Pandey came third, with 1,90,856 (13.06 per cent) votes and lost his security deposit.

The fourth was Bahujan Samaj Party's Rajveer Singh with 37,831 (2.59 per cent) votes.

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The MNF, a constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA, has also won the Assembly by-election in the state.

Lalrosanga, a former Indian Broadcasting Programme Service officer and retired Director General of Doordarshan, secured 223,509 votes (44.89 per cent). Hmar, backed by the opposition Congress and the Zoram People's Movement alliance, bagged 215,202 votes (43.26 per cent).

C.L. Ruala of the Congress had won the Lok Sabha seat in Mizoram in 2014.

Altogether six candidates, including Lalthlamuani - the first woman to fight the parliamentary polls in Mizoram - were in the fray in the constituency, which voted on April 11 in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls.

MNF nominee Zothantluanga won the bypoll to the Aizawl West-1 Assembly seat, defeating Independent candidate Lalbuanga Sailo by 7,035 votes. The by-electionwas necessitated after ZPM legislator Lalduhoma vacated it to retain the Serchhip constituency.

The MNF, led by Zoramthanga, had delivered a humiliating defeat to Lal Thanhawla-led Congress government in the November 2018 Assembly polls, winning 26 seats in the 40-member house. With the bypoll win, the MNF's strength has risen to 27.

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Kolkata, May 23 (IANS) Union Minister and BJP candidate Babul Supriyo retained the Asansol Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 197,637 votes over his nearest rival Moon Moon Sen of the Trinamool Congress, in the results announced on Thursday.

Singer-actor-turned-politician Supriyo secured 633,378 votes while Sen got 435,741.

Supriyo had created a sensation by winning from Asansol in 2014, when BJP bagged only two LS seats from the state.

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Bengaluru, May 23 (IANS) Setting an unprecedented record in south India, a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday won 22 seats and was leading in three of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka where the vote count was about to end for the two-phase polling held on April 18 and April 23.

In contrast, the ruling Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) allies faced a rout in the southern state, retaining only one seat each and forfeiting nine seats to the BJP.

The 22 seats the BJP won across the southern state are Bagalkot, Bangalore Central, Bangalore North, Bangalore South, Bellary (ST), Bidar, Chamarajanagar, Chikkaballapur, Chikkodi, Chitradurga (SC), Dharwad, Davanagere, Dakshina Kannada, Gulbarga (SC) Haveri, Koppal, Mysore, Raichur (ST), Shimoga, Tumkur, Udupi-Chikmagalur and Uttara Kannada.

The BJP is leading in Belgaum, Bijapur (SC) and Kolar (SC).

The Congress retained only Bangalore Rural with D.K. Suresh winning against BJP's Ashwath Narayangowda by a margin of 2,06,870 votes.

JD-S also retained Hassan where its candidate Prajwal Revanna defeated A. Manju of the BJP by 1,41,324 votes. Prajwal is the grandson of JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and son of state PWD Minister H.D. Revanna, elder brother of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.

An independent - south Indian multi-lingual film actress Sumalatha Ambareesh, backed by the BJP - won in Mandya over JD-S contestant Nikhil Kumaraswamy by a margin of 1,25,876 votes.

Nikhil is the son of Kumaraswamy and another grandson of JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda.

Deve Gowda, however, lost to BJP's G.S. Basavaraj in Tumkur by a narrow margin of 13,339 votes.

Congress leader in the outgoing Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge also lost to BJP's Umesh Jadav in the Gulbarga reserved seat by a margin of 95,452 votes.

BJP's first-time contestant and young turk Tejasvi Surya defeated Congress Rajya Sabha member B.K. Hariprasad in the high-profile Bangalore South by a whopping margin of 3,11,192 votes.

The BJP contested in 27 seats while Congress fought in 21 and ally JD-S in seven seats as part of their pre-poll alliance seat arrangement.

In the 2014 general election, the BJP had won 17 seats, the Congress nine and JD-S two.

In fact, the nine seats the Congress won in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in the state was its highest anywhere in the country, which made the party appoint its member from Gulbarga Mallikarjun Kharge as its leader in the lower house of Parliament.

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Gurugram, May 23 (IANS) Exuberant over his thumping victory, BJP's Gurugram candidate Rao Inderjeet Singh said it is a historic parliamentary election wherein people of the country kept faith with him and voted for Narendra Modi to make him Prime Minister again.

Singh defeated Congress candidate Captain Ajay Singh Yadav with a margin of 3.81 lakh. Rao got 8.8 lakh votes while 4.9 lakh votes went to his nearest rival Yadav.

He has broken his own record of defeating INLD candidate Jakir Hussain by a margin of 2.74 lakh votes during the 2014 election.

For Singh, saving Gurugram seat was a challenging affair after the Congress backed six-time MLA Yadav to eat into his traditional Ahirwal vote banks of Gurugram and Rewari. Besides, voters in minority-dominated Nuh were also against him.

After the victory, Rao reached his native village Rampura located in Rewari district and addressed his supporters.

There were 24 candidates in the fray for Gurugram and only one candidate reached the four-figure mark apart from Singh and Yadav. The third position was achieved by Chaudhary Rais Ahmed of BSP who gained 2,999 votes.

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Bhopal, May 23 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Thursday accepted the results of the Lok Sabha election in which his Congress party suffered an emphatic defeat, saying the party could not convey its agenda to the people.

Reacting to the victory of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance across the country, including in Madhya Pradesh, Nath said: "It is true the results were not as per our expectations but we accept and respect the mandate. We will examine it. Winning and losing are part of democracy."

"It seems we were not able to take our message and agenda to the people. I congratulate the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We will always stand with the people."

Of the state's 29 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress could manage to win just the single seat of Chhindwara which was bagged by Nath's son, Nakul, while the Chief Minister himself won the Chhindwara Assembly by-poll.

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Ahmedabad, May 23 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Gujarat once again captured all 26 Lok Sabha seats on Thursday while decimating the opposition Congress with BJP candidates improving their voteshare with dreamlike numbers, the highest margin being 6.78 lakh votes and the lowest at 1.25 lakh.

If the Modi wave swept all the seats with a vote share of 31 per cent in 2014, the 2019 tsunami was set to send it skyrocketing with all BJP candidates, except one, improving their winning margins drastically.

Seeking re-election from Navsari constituency in South Gujarat, BJP's C.R. Patil defeated his nearest rival by a whopping 6,78,545 votes, while party chief Amit Shah registered an emphatic victory margin of 5,55,843 votes, surpassing party patriarch L.K. Advani's winning lead of 4.83 lakh.

There is more.

Surat BJP candidate Darshana Jardosh won with a margin of 5,47,155 votes, improving her margin of 5,33,190 in 2014. Another woman candidate, Ranjan Bhatt won by 5,63,951 votes almost matching Modi's 5,70,128 in 2014. Modi subsequently preferred to retain the Varanasi seat in UP.

As many as 10 others posted victory margins of more than three lakh votes over their Congress rivals.

Only four candidates' victory margins only marginally fell - in Porbandar, Mehsana and Ahmedabad West. The only seat where the margin fell from 2.30 lakh votes in 2014 to 1,25,559 was Dahod in central Gujarat, which was contested for the second time by Jashwant Bhabhor. This seat is reserved for Scheduled Tribes.

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New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Several Twitter users on Thursday immediately followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to remove the prefix 'Chowkidar from their Twitter handles.

"The word 'Chowkidar' goes from my Twitter name but it remains an integral part of me. Urging you all to do the same too!" tweeted Modi.

Immediately after that, the hashtag "Chowkidar Spirit" started trending on the micro-blogging platform.

"Mission accomplished... Chowkidar spirit will continue," tweeted one user.

"Right sir; Chowkidar Spirit to the next level. Spirit alive always," wrote another.

One user wrote: "Modi ji aapne Bola aur humne follow nai kiya aisa hoga kya. Let's keep chowkidar spirit within us, but lets remove it from our Twitter names...

In March, Modi tweeted a video with the hashtag '#MainBhiChowkidar' (I am also a watchman) and called all those a watchman who are fighting corruption, dirt, social evils and are working for the progress of India.

Soon after, the Prime Minister added 'Chowkidar' prefix to his Twitter handle, and several BJP leaders and the party followers followed.

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Amaravati, May 23 (IANS) Popular Telugu actor and Jana Sena Party (JSP) chief Pawan Kalyan had a disastrous electoral debut in Andhra Pradesh as he lost from both the Assembly seats he contested.

In Gajuwaka constituency in Visakhapatnam district, Pawan lost to YSR Congress Party's (YSRCP) T. Nagireddy by over 16,000 votes.

The actor also tasted defeat in Bhimavaram constituency in West Godavari district where Grandhi Srinivas of YSRCP emerged victorious with over 8,000 votes.

JSP, which was expected to be a X factor in the event of a close fight between Telugu Desam Party and YSRCP, came a cropper. It was leading in one constituency in 175-member Assembly and drew a blank in 25 Lok Sabha seats.

The debut of Kalyan's party was worst than Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) floated by his elder brother and superstar K. Chiranjeevi in 2009. PRP had bagged 18 seats in 294-member Assembly of then undivided Andhra Pradesh.

JSP had contested the polls in alliance with Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India-Marxist but none of them could win a single Assembly or Lok Sabha seat.

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New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Aam Aadmi Party's East Delhi candidate Atishi on Thursday congratulated BJP's Gautam Gambhir for winning the Lok Sabha seat and extended help and collaboration for the betterment of East Delhi.

In a series of tweets, she also thanked East Delhi people for the support.

"Congratulations to Gautam Gambhir! People of East Delhi have reposed their trust in you. I will always be available for help and collaboration for the betterment of East Delhi. All the best!

"And many thanks to the people of East Delhi. Have been overwhelmed by the love and affection I have gotten here. I will always be available for you and shall continue my work here for a safer, more educated and developed East Delhi," she said.

She also thanked the volunteers of the AAP "who gave their heart and soul to the campaign" and those who contributed in her crowdfunding.

"All of you are amazing! It gives me a great sense of hope that so many people from different walks have life have come together to bring change in this country..."

While Gambhir scored 6,95,109 (55.33 per cent) votes, Congress' Arvinder Singh Lovely got 3,04,718 (24.25 per cent) votes and Atishi 2,19,156 (17.44 per cent) votes, as the counting is still underway.

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Chandigarh, May 23 (IANS) In a first in Haryana's electoral history, the ruling BJP made a clean sweep by winning all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while the Congress and Om Prakash Chautala's Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) faced humiliating defeats.

Union Ministers Rao Inderjit Singh (Gurugram) and Krishan Pal Gurjar (Faridabad) won their respective constituencies.

Former Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his son Deepender Hooda had to bite the dust in Sonipat and Rohtak seats, respectively.

It was a do-or-die battle for Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his predecessor - the "marginalised" Congress leader Bhupinder Hooda.

The stakes were high for Hooda in these elections as he had tried to prove that he was still a mass leader and could lead the Congress in the forthcoming Assembly polls.

Hooda was marginalised after the party's humiliating defeat in the October, 2014 Assembly polls held with him at the helm.

In contrast to his father, Deepender Hooda was confident of retaining his Rohtak bastion.

In the past 11 out of 17 times, the Congress has won the Jat-dominated Rohtak seat.

The Hoodas -- Deepender Hooda, his father Bhupinder Hooda and grandfather Ranbir Singh Hooda -- have represented Rohtak nine times.

Hooda junior was the only Congress candidate among 10 in the state who had managed to win in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The BJP had then polled 34.8 per cent of votes, winning seven seats, while the INLD secured two seats.

The other big name who lost in this election was former Union minister Kumari Selja, who was fighting on the Congress ticket from Ambala, a reserved seat.

The BJP's winner Rao Inderjit Singh was contesting from Gurugram, while former Congress state minister Ajay Yadav was pitted against him.

Union Minister Krishan Pal Gujjar, who won the Faridabad seat in 2014 with a huge 4.7 lakh margin, was vying to retain the seat. He was facing a challenge from former Congress MP Avtar Singh Bhadana and AAP state chief Navin Jaihind.

Former Chief Minister Chautala's grandsons -- Arjun, Dushyant and Digvijay -- who were making their debut in electoral politics, all faced defeats.

Arjun and Digvijay Chautala were trying their luck from Kurukshetra and Sonipat seats, respectively, as candidates of the INLD and the Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), a breakaway INLD faction.

The JJP and the Aam Aadmi Party had formed an alliance.

A triangular clash of dynasts was witnessed in Hisar where Dushyant Chautala, who leads the JJP, was struggling to retain his seat.

He was pitted against debutants Bhavya Bishnoi of the Congress and BJP's bureaucrat-turned-politician Brijendra Singh who won the seat.

While Bishnoi, the youngest in the fray, is the grandson of late three-time Chief Minister Bhajan Lal, Brijendra Singh is the son of Congress turncoat and Steel Minister Birender Singh.

Amidst allegations of booth capturing, 69.74 per cent of the 1.8 crore electorate in the state cast their votes on May 12.

The result decided the fate of 223 candidates, including 11 women.

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Bengaluru, May 23 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Thursday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for winning the 2019 Lok Sabha elections with absolute majority.

"This is an unexpected result for me personally. But I congratulate Modi and BJP for the absolute mandate they got from the people," tweeted Kumaraswamy in Kannada, hours after the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and its ally Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the southern state where the saffron party won 25 of the 28 parliamentary seats.

Congratulating all the winners in the state irrespective of party affiliations, Kumaraswamy said that though the JD-S had won and lost many elections in the past, it would continue to work for the welfare of the people.

"We will discuss the results with our party leaders and legislators and also our ally Congress to strengthen our coalition government to serve the people," the Chief Minister tweeted.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 17 seats and is leading in eight more out of 27 seats the party had contested, while the JD-S and the Congress won only one each.

Independent Sumalatha Ambareesh, who was supported by the BJP, won from Mandya against Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of the Chief Minister and grandson of JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda.

Of the seven seats JD-S contested in the two-phase poll held on April 18 and April 23, six of its candidates, including Deve Gowda lost from Tumkur to the BJP.

Of the 21 seats Congress contested in a pre-poll seat arrangement with JD-S, it lost in 20 and could retain only one - Bangalore Rural.

In the 2014 general elections, BJP won 17, Congress nine and JD-S two.

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"The Indian electorate has given a decisive verdict in favour of the BJP and its allies. The CPI-M has suffered a severe setback in these elections. We shall introspect the reasons for this and draw proper lessons for the future," the CPI-M said in a statement.

The party said big challenges were ahead "regarding the defence of our secular democratic republic, the institutions of constitutional authority, people's rights and livelihood issues." The party has urged people to safeguard harmony and to unitedly come forward to meet these challenges.

It also thanked the people who voted for the party. "The CPI-M thanks all those people who have voted for its candidates. The politburo salutes all those who worked in carrying forward the CPI-M's message in these elections to the people," the statement added.

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Kolkata, May 23 (IANS) With more security personnel than party workers, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's house and the street leading to her residence in South Kolkata's Kalighat wore a deserted look on Thursday with counting trends for the Lok Sabha polls showing a big increase in the BJP's numbers and a consequent decrease in the ruling party's tally of seats.

Barring some workers who were celebrating party's Kolkata South candidate Mala Roy's huge about 1.5 lakh vote lead, the mood was sombre as many senior leaders gave the miss to their usual celebratory gathering at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street.

The trend of the election results showed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead on 18 seats, while the Trinamool was leading in 23 seats in West Bengal, as per the Election Commission website.

In the wake of the stunning performance of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections both at the Centre and her state, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said her party would do a "complete review" of the vote outcome.

"We have to do a complete review and then we will share our views with you all. Let the counting process be completed and the VVPATs matched," Banerjee tweeted.

The Trinamool activists and supporters were clearly taken aback by the trends as they were expecting a repeat of the Trinamool's performance five years back when it bagged 34 of the 42 seats in the state.

The handful of party workers were mostly reluctant to talk. A couple of them agreed to share their feelings only after lot of cajoling and coaxing.

"I am seeing what you are watching. Where are the top-rung leaders, the party workers, supporters and hangers-on? The entire area lacks the usual bustle what we had seen in 2016 Assembly polls and 2014 Lok Sabha elections," said a local resident requesting anonymity.

Asked about the unusual scene at Harish Chatterjee Street, which generally remains choc a bloc with Trinamool supporters on vote counting day, one of 10-12 party workers who were seen lazing under a shed by the roadside said: "We cannot believe the overall results though Mala-di (Mala Roy) is winning with a record margin. We do not know how the exit-polls prediction matched with the election results."

The various exit polls also forecast a massive increase in the BJP's number of seats -- from two in 2014 to between 16 and 18 in West Bengal.

The party supporters, who chatted among themselves in hushed tones, were highly critical of the 'anti-Mamata' Left Front workers, for having "voted" for the saffron party.

Listing out a series of welfare schemes introduced by Banerjee and development projects undertaken by her government, a Trinamool worker said: "No one will be able to compete with Didi on what she has done for the state. CPI (M) voters who consider Mamata as their only opponent cast their votes in favour of the BJP. Otherwise, this results could not have happened."

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Mumbai, May 23 (IANS) The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena combine marched to a spectacular victory in Maharashtra, leading in or bagging (as of 6 p.m.) 41 of the state's 48 Lok Sabha seats.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis termed the success by saying: "Its not just a 'Modi-wave', it's a tsunami."

"There are no differences between us (BJP-Sena)... The people have given us a clear verdict. We shall go among the people and work for development and other issues," he said.

Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray, who warmly welcomed Fadnavis at his home in the evening, attributed the results to the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies.

"Our alliance will continue further, even after the upcoming Assembly elections in October," Thackeray said.

When questioned about his estranged cousin Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray's famous campaign "Laav re te video" (Play that video), Thackeray declined comment, but said mockingly: "Laav re te fataakde" (Burst the crackers).

As per latest trends, the BJP was on way to winning 22 seats and the Shiv Sena 20 seats, of the 25 and 23 seats they contested respectively, which Fadnavis termed as well within their expectations and which "increased the responsibility thrust by the people on the saffron alliance".

The electoral bloodbath in Maharashtra claimed at least two Union Ministers - one from the BJP and one from Sena - falling to the Congress and NCP candidates respectively.

There are two former chief ministers - Ashok Chavan in Nanded and Sushilkumar Shinde in Solapur - both from Congress who were felled by the BJP surge.

However, the Congress is still pinning hopes of winning one seat - Chandrapur - while its ally Nationalist Congress Party has bagged four seats so far - Baramati, Raigad, Shirur and Satara. Opposition-supported Independent, south Indian film actress Navnit Kaur R. Rana (Amravati) also won.

In Aurangabad, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen candidate Imtiyaz Jaleel Syed who was leading with significant margins since morning, suddenly trailed in the evening behind his Shiv Sena rival Chandrakant Ahire, and the see-saw battle between them continued in each round.

NCP President Sharad Pawar said he humbly accepts the peoples' verdict, while a bewildered MNS chief Raj Thackeray termed the outcome "as beyond rationale".

For the state's numero uno political clan, the shocking defeat of NCP's Parth Ajit Pawar in Maval was the first-ever tasted by any family member in any elections in the past over five decades.

Another former Chief Minister and President of Maharashtra Swabhimani Party Narayan Rane's son and former MP Nilesh Rane was trounced by the Sena candidate Vinayak Raut in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, with the Congress controversial nominee Navinchandra B. Bandivadekar faring a poor third.

The country's commercial capital saw the Congress-NCP dreams crumble once again after 2014 when they lost all the six seats in Mumbai, stunning the recently-appointed city party chief Milind M. Deora.

Similarly, the much-anticipated Dalit-Muslim unity experiment of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) was totally rejected by the people, with VBA President Prakash Ambedkar - grandson of Architect of Indian Constitution B.R. Ambedkar - losing in both Akola and Solapur seats which he contested, though the AIMIM candidate in Aurangabad held out hopes of a victory.

Buoyed by the outcome, a confident BJP Minister Chandrakant Patil announced that in the upcoming state Assembly elections, the BJP-Sena alliance would again rule Maharashtra.

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Hyderabad, May 23 (IANS) In a huge shock to Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, his daughter K. Kavitha was defeated in the election in Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency.

Dharmapuri Arvind of BJP defeated Kavitha of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) by over 66,000 votes.

Arvind is the son of rebel TRS leader and Rajya Sabha member D. Srinivas. Kavitha was elected from Nizamabad in 2014.

The constituency had attracted nationwide attention for having the highest number of candidates. A total of 185 candidates were in the fray including 178 farmers, who filed nominations to highlight their demands for remunerative prices for their produce.

The Election Commission had used a record number of Electronic Voting Machines to conduct the election in Nizamabad. It deployed 16 ballot units of M3 version in each polling station to facilitate polling.

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New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Going berserk over the massive mandate received by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), users on various social media platforms on Thursday began firing memes, jokes and GIFs, especially aimed to the Opposition and the Congress Party.

Ever since the vote count commenced, netizens began their day with a video clip showing television journalist Arnab Goswami mistakenly referring to Sunny Deol as Sunny Leone.

The clip was shared in such a huge number that it convinced actor Sunny Leone to post, "Leading by How many votes????" on Twitter with multiple emojis.

Soon, the memes on Congress President Rahul Gandhi and other politicians began making the rounds.

BJP candidate Smriti Irani's win over Rahul Gandhi in Amethi further stirred the meme broth.

One trending meme showed Rahul Gandhi's face photoshopped on Deepika Padukone's body in the Padmavat poster that read "Sadmavati".

A meme collage showed multiple images of Smriti Irani, saying: "Smriti Irani looking for some competition from Rahul Gandhi".

Citing a famous scene from the film "3 Idiots" a creative meme showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi telling Rahul Gandhi: "Neeche se check kar, neeche se!"

A rendition of another scene from the same film, showed a picture of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa along with the dialogue: "Hum dukhi the, par humse bhi zyada 2 log aur dukhi the."

An old picture of the Gandhi family -- showing Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi sitting near a lotus-bud clad pond -- resurfaced again with the caption: "Kamal khilne ke intezar mein".

One picture showed Rahul Gandhi addressing a media campaign captioned: "Aree haarna jeetna chhoro, manoranjan mei toh koi kami nahi hui na?"

One viral meme on Smriti Irani's victory in Amethi read: "If "Ghar mein ghus ke marna" has a face!!"

Don't miss this hilarious one for the Opposition: "Bade dukh ke saath soochit karna pad raha hai ki ess desh ne ek saath 22 pradhan mantri kho diye hai".

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Nagpur (Maharashtra), May 23 (IANS) Describing the landslide victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA as a "triumph of national forces", the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Thursday expressed that India has again got a stable government.

"Crores of people of Bharat (India) are fortunate to once again have a stable government. This is the triumph of national forces. Many compliments to each and everyone who have contributed to this victory of democracy," RSS General Secretary Suresh 'Bhaiyyaji' Joshi said.

"The spirit and ideal of democracy have once again been established for the world to witness. The new government shall endeavour and succeed in fulfilling the aspirations and ambitions of the common people," he added.

"We wish that with the completion of polling process, all bitterness will end and the verdict of the masses is welcomed with humility," Joshi concluded.

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Kolkata, May 23 (IANS) In an indication that it has benefitted from communal polarisation, the BJP on Thursday came up with a stunning performance in the West Bengal Lok Sabha constituencies close to the India-Bangladesh border which have a substantial minority vote.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which seems to be sweeping North Bengal, where it is leading in all eight constituencies, has left its close rival Trinamool Congress behind in seats like Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and Malda North, which share borders with Bangladesh.

The BJP was also in the lead in Darjeeling, where the Chopra and Fansideoa assembly segments border Bangladesh. The Darjeeeling constituency, incidentally, has a 20-25 per cent Muslim population.

Two other North Bengal constituencies - Balurghat and Raiganj - also seem to be going the BJP way, though the saffron outfit and the ruling Trinamool Congress are running neck and neck in Balurghat. Both constituencies have segments located in the Indo-Bangla border areas.

In Muslim-majority Malda district, the BJP candidates were ahead in both parliamentary seats. Khagen Murmu was leading in the Malda North, while Sreerupa Mitra Chaudhury is now ahead in Malda South.

In Ranaghat, another constituency that shares a border with Bangladesh, BJP's little known Jagananth Sarkar has taken a sizeable lead over his Trinamool rival.

In South Bengal, in the Dalit Matua community-dominated Bongaon Lok Sabha constituency again on the India-Bangladesh border, the BJP candidate and late Matua matriarch Binapani Thakur's grandson Shantanu Thakur was leading over his aunt and Trinamool Congress candidate and sitting MP Mamata Bala Thakur.

While there are some constituency specific reasons for the BJP's surge in the border regions, some common causes are a sharp Hindu-Muslim polarisation, the BJP's highlighting of infiltration from across the border, the party's promise to come up with an Assam-like National Register for Citizens in Bengal, and its pledge to pass the Citizenship Amendment Bill if voted to power again.

These two issues seem to have resonated well with the Hindus in these areas.

Refering to the communal polarisation, Congress leader Shubhankar Sarkar said: "During my campaign in the villages and towns of Bengal I saw a sharp division between the Hindus and the Muslims. The Hundu vote in a large part of the state seems to have gone to the BJP, while the Muslim vote got divided between the Trinamool and the Congress in areas where we are strong".

Besides, the BJP's constant harping on the Mamata Banerjee government's "appeasement policies" - giving allowances to Imams and Muezzins and initiating a plethora of measures for minority welfare - seem to have struck a chord with the Hindu community, who backed the BJP in strong numbers.

A large percentage of the population in Ranaghat are from families of Hindu refugees from Bangladesh, who fled during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. The BJP's campaign that under Banerjee, Bengal was turning into another Pakistan also moved the Hindus in these areas, many of whom had torrid time during the Partition.

The same psychology holds for other border areas of the state, an analyst said.

Referring to the Malda North seat, a senior Trinamool leader said the division of the Muslim vote between Trinamool candidate Mausam Benazir Noor and her cousin Congress nomine Isha Khan Chowdhury made the game easy for the BJP, which managed to consolidate the Hindu vote bank.

In Malda South, the BJP has for years been doing well in constituencies like Enlishbazar and Baishnabnagar. In fact, the saffron outfit has a sitting MLA in Baishnabnagar.

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Chandigarh, May 23 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday said he will soon take up with the Congress high command the issue of Navjot Singh Sidhu's damaging remarks ahead of polling in Punjab, which he said might have affected the party's performance in Bathinda.

Speaking about the performance of the Ministers, the Chief Minister said that would be reviewed in the backdrop of the Lok Sabha results in the state.

"We will review the performance of the ministers, it was not a veiled threat made by the party before the elections," he told reporters here.

Though he refused to comment directly on the possible impact of Sidhu's comments on the Congress performance in Punjab, Amarinder Singh said as a Minister, Sidhu's own performance needed to be reviewed.

Asserting that Sidhu had not been able to handle his department, the Chief Minister made it clear that he intended to take up the issue with the high command once things have settled down in the party, post the election results.

The Congress in Punjab performed poorly in urban areas, and Sidhu was the minister for urban development, Amarinder Singh pointed out, adding that while everyone had the right to promote themselves in a democracy, it was wrong on his part to made the controversial comments once the battle had started.

Referring to Sidhu's remarks on the investigation into the sacrilege cases, the Chief Minister said the minister evidently did not understand that the Special Investigative Team (SIT) was set up by the state assembly and it was thus the body which had to complete the probe.

The Chief Minister also reiterated that Sidhu's "yaari and jhappi" (friendship and hugs) with the Pakistani Army Chief would not be tolerated, especially by Army personnel, who were being killed by ISI-backed terrorists while he was going hugging their leaders.

Amarinder Singh rejected the suggestion of detrimental impact to the Congress by party leader Pratap Singh Bajwa, saying the party had won in the areas in which he was said to have some influence.

Thanking the Congress workers, its leaders and all Punjabi people for the party's victory in Punjab, Amarinder Singh said he would do everything to live up to the people's expectations.

He said the Punjab Congress would introspect on why three areas in Bathinda proved to be weak for the party and also why Sunil Jakhar lost to Sunny Deol in Gurdaspur despite his hard work.

"I do not understand the people's preference for a Bollywood star over an experienced leader," he said, hoping the Indian democracy would evolve more in the coming years.

On Hoshiarpur, the Chief Minister blamed the Congress' defeat to votes being shifted to the BSP, which proved a deciding factor in this constituency and affected the margins in some others.

Overall, the people of Punjab had responded to the government's development and welfare programmes, including farm debt waiver and employment generation, said Amarinder Singh.

Sacrilege certainly worked against the Akali Dal, he said to a question, adding that Hindutva did not impact the polls in Punjab.

On AAP's Bhagwant Mann's victory, the Chief Minister attributed it to his own standing and not to his party, which was politically completely eliminated.

Amarinder Singh trashed a suggestion that the Congress party's nation-wide performance had raised questions on Rahul Gandhi's leadership, saying he had worked closely with Rahul Gandhi, whom he found to be a fine leader.

Winning and losing was part of the game, and if BJP could rise from two seats when Congress was over 300 seats in Lok Sabha, it can, and will rise, again, he asserted.

The Chief Minister said while Prime Minister Narendra Modi had won the elections, he felt the Prime Minister should not do anything to destroy India's secular credentials.

He said he did not agree with the brand of nationalism being promoted by the BJP, as every citizen of India was a nationalist and the nation's strength lay in its diversity.

He made it clear that giving Modi the credit for Balakot was totally wrong as other leaders before him, including Indira Gandhi in 1971, had taken such strong actions and given due credit to the armed forces.

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New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Celebrations broke out across the national capital on Thursday with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leading on all the seven seats in Delhi.

The BJP wasleading with the maximum margin in the North West Delhi seat, where celebrity face Hans Raj Hans was ahead with 5,24,949 votes against the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Gugan Singh.

The Congress, meanwhile, was trailing on five seats, followed by the AAP on two seats.

According to the latest vote count trends, the BJP's cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir was leading over his Congress rival and former Delhi Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely by 3,77,744 votes.

In South Delhi, BJP's Ramesh Bidhuri was ahead of the AAP's Raghav Chadha by 3,39,197 votes.

In Chandini Chowk, sitting MP and Union Minister Harsha Vardhan was leading against Congress' J.P. Agarwal by 1,52,019 votes.

BJP state President Manoj Tiwari from the North East Delhi seat was leading with 3,57,436 votes against former Delhi Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit.

In the New Delhi seat, BJP's Meenakshi Lekhi was leading the vote count with 2,51,673 votes against the Congress' Ajay Makhan.

The BJP was ahead of the Congress in the West Delhi constituency as well with 5,41,389 votes, where the saffron party's Parvesh Singh Verma was leading with 5,41,389 votes against the Congress' Mahabal Mishra who had secured 65,238 votes, as per the latest trends.

The BJP had bagged all the seven seats in the national capital in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and had fielded five of its seven sitting MPs.

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New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for their victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and said the party respects the mandate given by the people of the country.

Speaking to reporters here at the party headquarters, she said: "We respect the mandate of the people and I congratulate Modiji and BJP for the victory."

Priyanka Gandhi had arrived at the party headquarters along with her brother and party President Rahul Gandhi to address a press conference.

Her remarks came after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was leading in over 300 of the 542 parliamentary seats.

While Rahul Gandhi lost home turf Amethi to BJP's Smriti Irani, he won from Kerala's Wayanad.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi also won from Rae Bareli.

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Lucknow, May 23 (IANS) The Apna Dal, an ally of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, has won both the Lok Sabha seats that it contested from Mirzapur and Robertsganj.

Union Minister Anupriya Patel has won from Mirzapur while Pakodi Lal Kol has won from Robertsganj.

In 2014, the Apna Dal had contested only two seats, Mirzapur and Pratapgarh, and had won both. The party has thus maintained its 100 per cent success rate.

The breakaway faction of the Apna Dal, led by Krishna Patel, failed to win even a single seat. The party had contested on the Congress symbol as it did not have its own symbol.

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Bengaluru, May 23 (IANS) A resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won eight and was leading in 16 of the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka where the vote count has been underway for the two-phase polling held on April 18 and April 23, an official said on Thursday.

In contrast, the ruling Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) are facing a humiliating defeat as the former was still leading only in two seats and the latter won from the lone Hassan seat.

The BJP's candidates were declared victorious in Bengaluru North, Bellary (ST), Bidar, Chikkaballapur, Haveri, Koppal, Shimoga and Uttara Kannada.

The saffron party is also leading in Bagalkot, Bangalore Central, Bangalore South, Belgaum, Bijapur (SC), Chikkodi, Chitradurga (SC), Dharwad, Davanagere, Dakshina Kannada, Gulbarga (SC), Kolar, Mysore, Raichur (ST), Tumkur and Udupi-Chikmaglur.

The Congress is leading in Bangalore Rural and Chamarajanagar (SC) in the old Mysore region, while the JD-S retained Hassan with its candidate Prajwal Revanna defeating A. Manju of the BJP by 1,41,324 votes after all 24 rounds of counting.

Prajwal is the grandson of JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and son of state PWD Minister H.D. Revanna, elder brother of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.

An independent - south Indian multi-lingual film actress Sumalatha Ambareesh, backed by the BJP - is leading in Mandya over JD-S contestant Nikhil Kumaraswamy by 1,17,226 votes after 18 of the 22 rounds.

Nikhil is son of Kumaraswamy and another grandson of JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda.

Deve Gowda was narrowly trailing BJP's G.S. Basavaraj in Tumkur by 12,387 votes after all the 19 rounds of counting.

"The declaration in Tumkur will be made after verifying the votes counted in the EVMs with slips of the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) randomly from every five Assembly segments of the Lok Sabha constituency, as directed by the Supreme Court on April 8," the official said.

Congress leader in the outgoing Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge was also trailing BJP's Umesh Jadav in Gulbarga reserved seat by 62,201 votes after seven of the 21 rounds of counting so far.

BJP's first-time contestant and young turk Tejaswi Surya was leading by 3,24,940 votes against Congress Rajya Sabha member B.K. Hariprasad in the high-profile Bangalore South after 20 of the 23 rounds so far.

The BJP contested in 27 seats while ruling allies Congress fought in 21 and the JD-S in seven seats as part of their pre-poll alliance seat arrangement.

In Bangalore Central, BJP's two-time winner P.C. Mohan overtook his Congress rival Rizwan Arshad after trailing in the initial rounds.

In the 2014 general election, the BJP won had 17 seats, the Congress nine and JD-S won two.

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New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) As Congress President Rahul Gandhi lost the prestigious Amethi seat to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Smriti Irani, one of the biggest setbacks of the Lok Sabha polls, the chorus grew on Twitter for resignation of Pubjan Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu.

In April, Sidhu had announced he would quit politics if Rahul Gandhi lost elections from Amethi.

"Navjot Sidhu come to laughter show again, that's your real place," said one user.

"I know he is man of his words...now leave," tweeted another.

Sidhu in April had out-rightly rejected the claim that Irani was giving a tough fight to Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, the Congress bastion for years.

Known for his controversial remarks, he has also been criticised by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh for damaging the Congress prospects with his ill-timed comments against him and the party leadership in the state.

"@sherryontopp stand true to your word..." tweeted one user.

"Politics will now be that much less entertaining as @sherryontopp prepares to keep his vow of quitting politics were @RahulGandhi to lose #Amethi. I am afraid he may already have tendered his resignation as Minister to @capt_amarinder," tweeted another user.

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Dehradun, May 23 (IANS) Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Thursday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will remain heavily indebted to the people of India for giving the party an unprecedented victory in the general elections.

"We will remain heavily indebted to the people for giving us the full blessings in the elections," an elated Rawat said, amid rapturous celebrations at the party headquarters here.

Rawat also cautioned the opposition about questioning the credibility of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) in their defeat and, instead, accept the verdict with all humility and grace.

"This will amount to insulting the verdict of the people," he said.

Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement, Rawat said that he had called for more than 300 seats and people, in turn, have responded with their full mandate.

Referring to Modi's recent visit to Kedarnath, Rawat said that Lord Shiva had given the Prime Minister his full blessings.

"I also pray to Baba Kedar to fulfill the dream of Modi in his efforts to make a new India by 2022," the Chief Minister said.

He said that this was the first time in the country that there was no anti-incumbency factor operating against the ruling dispensation at the Centre.

Rawat also noted that the ruling BJP has got between 51 to 67 per cent of the votes in all the five Lok Sabha seats of the state, which is also unprecedented.

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By Vishal Gulati

Chandigarh, May 23 (IANS) The Modi wave could not have shaken Captain Amarinder Singh's ship in Punjab.

After thwarting foes within, Congress stalwart and two-time Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, 77, on Thursday is set to lead his party to victory in eight out of 13 Lok Sabha seats in his state.

His wife Preneet Kaur also managed to win the Patiala seat again and that too with a record margin. This is her fourth victory.

For the party's handsome victory in the northern border state, Amarinder expressed gratitude to the voters and party activists.

Political observers say Amarinder's tactical advance into the opponent's political territory by associating fellow 'Faujis' (ex-servicemen) seems unparalleled against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's message of nationalism and national security that struck a chord among voters across India.

Secondly, they say, his shrewd move to put the previous Akali Dal-BJP combine government on the mat by announcing a memorial in Bargari area for those who lost their lives or were injured in the 2015 Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firing incidents has enabled him to counter Modi's wave.

Two people were killed and many others injured when police resorted to unprovoked firing on hundreds of people protesting the alleged desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in Bargari village in Faridkot.

Without missing an opportunity, the Chief Minister kept on reminding voters that sacrilege was another thing altogether in Punjab than the Balakot airstrikes on Pakistani terror camps.

The people of Punjab, or anywhere else for that matter, can never forget an incident of desecration of their holy scriptures. Punjab, in particular, has suffered a great deal at the hands of divisive forces, he told IANS in an interview ahead of polling on May 19.

They do not want communal disharmony, they want to live in peace. Religion is not something they can tolerate anyone playing with or exploiting for political or electoral gains, which the sacrilege cases here were all about, he said.

At election meetings, he struck a cord by saying from the dais: "I am seeing too many 'faujis' here. How many of you participated in the 1965 India-Pakistan war?"

Keeping his humorous side alive, Amarinder, who had served as an army captain during the war and often greets his contemporaries by saluting them, did not miss an opportunity to remind the gathering that BJP candidate from Gurdaspur and actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol was a "filmy fauji while I am a real fauji."

Without mincing words, he often addressed Modi as a self-obsessed man.

The Chief Minister drew a sharp contrast between Modi's handling of the Balakot strikes and Indira Gandhi's achievement in splitting Pakistan to create Bangladesh during the 1971 war.

"In Punjab, which has a large number of its sons in the armed forces, this attempt by Modi to take credit for the strikes and invoke the Pulwama martyrs for votes has not gone down well at all with the people," he said.

"They know Modi and the BJP had no role to play in the courageous act -- which was the work of the Indian Air Force. What did Modi do? Just give the orders sitting in a conference room at PMO (Prime Minister's Office)? Any PM would have done the same, as I have maintained all along."

For Amarinder, who resigned as a Congress MP and left the party in 1984 to protest against Operation Bluestar and returned to the party in 1997, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots were a national tragedy and Congress leader Sam Pitroda's remarks that "what happened just happened (in 1984)" were "shameful and unpardonable".

Describing the 1984 riots a national tragedy, he told the electorate that it cannot be wished or washed away by Pitroda or anyone else.

"And as Rahul Gandhi has also said, those who perpetrated the violence should and will be punished. But if Modi thinks the remarks of Pitroda are enough to make the people of Punjab make this an election issue, forgetting their suffering at the hands of his government, he is totally mistaken."

The way Amarinder handled the issue of the 1984 riots, which was close to the hearts of all Sikhs, with his sharp acumen and also responded to Modi by condemning it publically and vocally, helped counter of polarisation of votes, an observer told IANS.

At the same time, local concerns remained in the limelight in the election meetings of Amarinder who fought the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Amritsar and drubbed senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley by a margin of more than one lakh votes.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Akali Dal-BJP combine won five seats (four to Akali Dal, one to BJP), while the Congress and the AAP won four seats each.

(Vishal Gulati can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in)

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