Election Results 2024 | VIP candidates tracker: PM Modi retains power in Varanasi third time, Rahul Gandhi wins both Rae Bareli and Wayanad seats

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi

As counting of votes for the Lok Sabha election begins, all eyes are on some of the key names including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Smriti Irani, Shashi Tharoor's tough contest with Rajeev Chandrasekhar, among others.

Here's are the winners of UP Election 2024:

• PM Modi won against Congress' Ajay Rai in Varanasi by a margin of over 1,52,513 votes.
• BJP's Smriti Irani lost against Congress' Kishori Lal Sharma in Amethi. The Congress candidate won the Amethi Lok Sabha seat with 539228 votes.
• SP's Akhilesh Yadav leads turned victorious against BJP's Subrat Pathak in Kannauj by a margin of 170076 votes.
• Congress leader Rahul Gandhi won by 687649 votes against BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh in Rae Bareli. He is also won his second seat in Wayanad against CPI's Annie Raja by a margin of 3,64,422 votes
•  BJP's Rajnath Singh won the Lucknow Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 135159 against SP's Ravidas Mehrotra.
• Congress's Shashi Tharoor defeated BJP candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar in Thiruvananthapuram with a margin of 16,077 votes.
• JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy won from the Mandya Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka. He defeated Venkataramane Gowda of the Congress by a margin of over 2.8 lakh votes.
• BJP's Amit Shah won from the Gandhinagar seat with 10,10,972 votes.
• NCP (SC)'s Supriya Sule won from Baramati by more than 20,000 votes against NCP's Sunetra Pawar from Baramati.
• Congress' Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury lost the Berhampore seat to BJP's Yusuf Pathan by 85,000 votes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (BJP), Varanasi

In Varanasi, his political stronghold, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is seeking an unprecedented third consecutive term. Assessments done so far unanimously predict his win, shifting the discussion from whether he'll win to how resounding his victory will be.

Amit Shah (BJP), Gandhinagar

The top BJP leader is aiming to keep his Gujarat seat for the second time in a row. His goal is to attain victory by a margin of 10 lakh votes.

Rahul Gandhi (Congress), Rae Bareli and Wayanad

He's contesting from two places again, just like in 2019. This time, he chose Rae Bareli, his family's longtime base, instead of his erstwhile stronghold Amethi, from where he lost in 2019.

Smriti Irani (BJP), Amethi

Irani wants to retain the seat she took from Rahul Gandhi in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. She's up against KL Sharma, a longtime Congress member.

HD Kumaraswamy (JDS), Mandya

The ex-Karnataka CM is fighting hard to gain a strong foothold for his party. Many see this contest as a battle for survival.

Supriya Sule (NCP [SC]), Baramati

Sule, from the NCP party, wants to keep her family's longtime seat. She's running against her own sister-in-law, Sunetra Pawar.

Shashi Tharoor (Congress) | Thiruvananthapuram

Tharoor wants to keep his seat and also help Congress win more in Kerala. It is one of the key fights because he's up against BJP's Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Akhilesh Yadav (SP), Kannauj

Samajwadi Party chief wants to win back his party's influence in this SP stronghold.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (Congress), Berhampore

Congress's Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is in a tough fight with Yusuf Pathan, the former Indian cricketer who is now running for TMC.

Rajnath Singh (BJP), Lucknow

The defence minister wants to maintain his hold on this important UP city, which was once held by former Prime Minister and BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee.