The counting of votes for 543 seats in 15th Lok Sabha began at 8:00 am on May 16th 2009 to decide the fate of more than 8,000 candidates. The overall voter turnout was 59-60%. In the early stages, NDA was in the leading, however, by 3:30 pm, the entire picture changed drastically. Congress along with its UPA almost got the victory, though not announced. UPA got a land sliding victory in the states of Kerala, Rajasthan and West Bengal. It was for the first time in 40 years for the Left to face a worst fate in West Bengal. Congress leading 6 seats in Delhi, celebrations already started at Sonia Gandhi’s residence at 10 Janpath. She called for an immediate Congress meet at 4.15 pm to take stock of the victories.
In other sectors, BJD won in Kandhmal and Patnaik’s BJD headed for majority in Orissa, NDA and UPA were in stiff competition with 2 seats each in Jharkhand and JD (U) headed for a sweeping victory in Bihar. While Sajad Lone was trailing in Baramulla in J&K, Farooq Abdullah recorded a leading in Srinagar. While BJP’s Vinod Khanna leading in Gurdaspur, Punjab, DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran was in lead in Tamil Nadu.
