Counting of votes began this morning amid tight security to elect 543 lawmakers for the 18th Lok Sabha, voting for which was held in the past six weeks and saw the participation of 642 million voters.

The counting began across all the centres in different States and Union Territories at 8 am.

Counting of votes for Odisha and Andhra Pradesh Assembly polls also started simultaneously whereas it has already taken place for Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh on June 2.

Fate of more than 8,000 candidates who are in the fray in the general elections will be decided today. Prominent among BJP candidates are Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Varanasi, UP), Home Minister Amit Shah (Gandhinagar ,Gujarat), Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (Lucknow, UP). Among others, Union Ministers Smriti Irani (Amethi, UP), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Guna, MP), Sarbananda Sonowal (Dibrugarh, Assam) and Kiren Rijiju (Arunachal West) are also in the contest.

Key candidates from the Congress are former party chief Rahul Gandhi (Rae Bareli, UP and Wayanad, Kerala), Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Baharampur, West Bengal), Gaurav Gogoi (Jorhat, Assam), Shashi Tharoor (Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala) and KL Sharma (Amethi).

Another prominent candidates include Samajwadi Party (SP ) chief and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj, UP), AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi (Hyderabad, Telangana), Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mahua Moitra (Krishnanagar, West Bengal) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Misa Bharti (Pataliputra, Bihar).

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar on Monday said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had made foolproof arrangements to ensure peaceful and fair counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections.

Elaborating on the arrangements made for the counting of votes, Kumar said the entire counting process is absolutely robust. The process of counting is codified.

“There cannot be any systemic mistake in this process. It works like a precision clock. There may be human problems, we will deal with that,” he said.

The CEC further said, “As per Rule 54A, postal ballot counting will start first. So, in all the (counting) centres, it will start first, there is no doubt about it. After only half an hour the EVM counting will start. As soon as EVM counting gets over, the counting of five (random) VVPAT will start.”

Several Exit polls predicted that the BJP-led NDA would retain power.

The INDIA bloc exuded confidence that it would win more than 295 seats and oust the ruling BJP government.

The Lok Sabha elections were held in seven phases between 19th April and 1st June. The first phase of polling was held on 19th April, second phase on 26th April, third phase on 7th May, fourth phase on 13th May, fifth phase on 20th May, sixth phase on 25th May and seventh phase on 1st June.

The first phase recorded 66.14 per cent voter turnout, second 66.71 per cent, third 65.68 per cent, fourth 69.16 per cent, fifth phase 62.2 per cent, sixth phase 63.37 per cent and seventh phase 63.88 per cent.