The most awaited moment of this year’s biggest assembly elections, which spanned five states – Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur, and Goa – occurred at 8 a.m., when the ballots were counted. While it may take hours to gain a complete picture of the voters’ decision, the first trends will emerge shortly after the postal ballots are counted.

In Uttar Pradesh and Manipur, most exit polls anticipated a comfortable victory for the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party, with an edge in Uttarakhand and a close race in Goa. Exit polls suggest that Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) could make a significant leap in Punjab, with one pollster forecasting up to 111 seats for Arvind Kejriwal’s party in the 117-member legislature. The Congress will bet against the exit poll results in Punjab, where it is the incumbent, and hope that the pollsters’ predictions of a tight race in Goa and Uttarakhand come true.

After lagging in the early rounds, the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh grabs the lead in Sirathu.

According to poll trends, UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya has taken a lead of over 800 votes in the Sirathu assembly constituency seat. He was previously down by 455 votes following the second round of voting.

Sanjay Raut of the Shiv Sena requests that the meeting be postponed until 2 p.m., citing the BJP’s lead in four states.

“These are preliminary patterns, so we’ll have to wait until 2 p.m. to get the full picture. The Aam Aadmi Party is winning in Punjab, Uttarakhand is having a strong election, the situation in Goa is still uncertain, and the BJP is leading in Uttar Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh, I am optimistic that Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party would give the BJP a serious fight “On the initial patterns of counting in five states, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut stated.

Punjab elections: Who’s leading and who’s trailing

With 18,544 votes, Bhagwant Mann is leading from Dhuri, while Congress contender Dalvir Singh Goldy is trailing with 6,101 votes.

By a margin of 590 votes, AAP candidate Jeevanjyot Kaur leads her nearest challenger Bikram Majithia.

SAD(B) Chief Sukhbir S Badal is trailing Jagdeep Goldi Kamboj by 3,546 votes.