Varanasi election result 2019 LIVE: All eyes are on Varanasi from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking a second term. The counting of votes has begun and PM Modi is in an advantageous position against his rivals. While poll pundits have predicted that it will be a cakewalk for PM Modi, it will be interesting to see whether he can match the winning margin of 2014. Voting in Varanasi was held on Sunday May 19, the last phase of seven-phased Lok Sabha election.

VARANASI LOK SABHA ELECTION RESULT UPDATES:

6.00 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading his nearest rival Shalini Yadav of Samajwadi Party by a margin of over 4.5 lakh votes. The Prime minister has secured 6.6 lakh votes, while the SP candidate has got 1.9 lakh votes. Congress candidate Ajay Rai has got 1.5 lakh votes.

1.58 pm: PM Modi leads SP candidate Shalini Yadav by 302,175 votes.

11.47 am: PM Modi leads by 163,299 votes from Varanasi against Shalini Yadav of Samajwadi Party.

11.24 am: PM Narendra Modi is looking to retain his seat. PM Modi is leading with a margin of 150,537 votes from Varanasi and is in an advantageous position against his rival SP candidate Shalini Yadav.

9.58 am: PM Modi is leading with 53,287 votes in early trends in Varanasi. SP’s Shalini Yadav is trailing with 23,777 votes.

9.27 am: BJP’s Narendra Modi is leading with 10,044 votes in initial trends in Varanasi. SP candidate Shalini Yadav is trailing with 4,897 votes.

Lok Sabha Election 2019: Full Coverage

Narendra Modi had won the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat by defeating his nearest rival Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal by a massive margin of 3.37 lakh votes. Modi had got 5,16,593 votes. Modi had replaced BJP’s senior leader and sitting Varanasi MP Murli Manohar Joshi as party’s candidate from here in 2014.

Challenging Modi from Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency are Congress candidate Ajay Rai, and Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party joint candidate Shalini Yadav. Ajay Rai, who is a five-time MLA, had contested the 2014 general election too but he had to suffer a massive defeat. Before joining the Congress, Rai had been in th BJP and Samajwadi Party. Earlier, there were speculations that Congress will field party general secretary for UP East Priyanka Gandhi to take on Narendra Modi from Varanasi, however, the party put to rest all such talks by picking Ajay Rai again.

Varanasi is a BJP stronghold as the saffron party has won all but one Lok Sabha election from the seat since 1991. In 2004, Congress’ Dr. Rajesh Kumar Mishra had defeated BJP candidate Shankar Prasad Jaiswal.

As per the Election Commission 2009 data, Varanasi parliamentary constituency has a total of 1,561,854 electorates out of which 694,209 are females and 867,645 are males. Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency has five Vidhan Sabha seats – Varanasi north, Varanasi south, Varanasi Cantonment, Sevapuri and Rohaniya. Home to Banaras Hindu University (BHU), considered to be one of the largest residential universities in Asia, Varanasi is by thronged by tourists from India and world alike.  The Kashi Vishwanath temple, Kaal Bhairav temple and various Ganga ghats are some of the top tourist destinations within Varanasi.