defeat from Anantnag

PDP president Mehbooba Mufti conceded defeat on Thursday in the election to the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat after trailing in the third place, behind the National Conference’s (NC) Hasnain Masoodi, who has taken a lead of 7,600 votes over Jammu and Kashmir Congress president G A Mir.

Masoodi, a retired high court judge, was leading Mir by 7,600 votes with 18,000 votes to be counted, election officials said.

Mehbooba, who had won the Anantnag seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, was at the third spot, 11,700 votes behind Masoodi.

4:12 pm IST

LK Advani congratulates PM Narendra Modi

“Heartiest congratulations to Narendrabhai Modi for steering BJP towards this unprecedented victory in elections. Amitbhai Shah as BJP President and all dedicated workers of the party have put in enormous effort inSabha seats it fielded its candidates on, reiterating the JD(U)’s track record of successful poll alliances.

As per the Election Commission website, all BJP candidates have comfortable leads in all the seven seats ensuring victory for the party.

In North East Delhi, the sitting MP and chief of Delhi BJP unit, Manoj Tiwari, is leading by over 2.5 lakh votes against the three-time former chief minister Sheila Dikshit. Earlier today, Tiwari told ANI that his party will come back to power with more than 350 seats.

Cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir of BJP is leading by over 2 lakh votes in East Delhi, leaving behind Arvinder Singh Lovely of Congress and Atishi of AAP. The poll campaign in East Delhi was marred with controversies with the Atishi accusing Gambhir of distributing defamatory pamphlets