LS Counting: BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar Leads From Thiruvananthapuram

Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar is leading from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat in Kerala while veteran Congress leader Shashi Tharoor is trailing from his bastion, as per leads.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar is leading the seat with a margin of 13,336 votes, leaving behind the veteran Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.

According to the latest data of the Election Commission of India, Rajeev Chandrasekhar has got 147312 while Shashi Tharoor has got 131696 votes.

In Kerala, the Congress-led UDF alliance is leading in 16 of the 20 seats, while the BJP leads in Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram. If the BJP holds on to the leas it will mark the first instance of the party winning a Lok Sabha seat from the state.

As per the latest trends by the Election Commission on 542 Lok Sabha seats, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is crossing the halfway mark with the BJP leading on 238 seats and winning one seat. The NDA is leading on 295 seats as per the trends as reported by the Election Commission.

Earlier, on Monday, after the exit polls predicted a third straight win for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that the exit polls are laughable, asserting that INDIA bloc will get 295 seats.

"We are seeing it with scepticism and disbelief because we have also been campaigning throughout the country. We also have a sense of what the pulse of the people is and we don't believe it is reflected accurately in these polls. Our Congress president, after meeting all the INDIA bloc members, has said that he is convinced that we are getting about 295 for the alliance. I stick to that number," Tharoor told reporters on Monday.

The Congress MP said that the Congress looked all over the place and no wave of the BJP was visible.

"I am perfectly aware that Thiruvananthapuram is the BJP's strongest constituency in Kerala, that on two occasions they have come second and therefore they are entirely capable of coming second again. But the possibility that they can actually win is, at the moment, a remote one because there has to be some basis for it. We have really looked all over the place, there was no wave," he said. (ANI)