Election Results 2019 LIVE updates: Violent ideology of Gandhi’s killer has won says Digvijaya Singh

In an unexpected development, Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav has sacked its panel of leaders who act as its spokespersons on television channels.

In a statement issued here on Friday, party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said: "The appointment of all party panelists has been cancelled on the directives of national President Akhilesh Yadav."

He further asked the TV channels not to invite any of the panelists for debates.

The 17th Lok Sabha will have 300 first-term members, compared to 314 in 2014, as 197 members of the outgoing House have got re-elected while 54 others were members of previous houses.

According to PRS Legislative Research, which tracks the work of parliament, the average age of members in the new Lok Sabha is 54 years, 394 have at least completed graduation level education and there will be 78 women.

Most MPs have declared political and social work as their occupation.

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, who contested and lost the Lok Sabha poll from Bhopal to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, on Friday said that the violent ideology of Mahatma Gandhi's killer had won in these elections.

Speaking to reporters here, Singh said: "We accept the public mandate according to the traditions of the Indian democracy. My only worry is that the values of the apostle of peace Mahatma Gandhi lost to the violent ideology of his killer in these elections."

Commenting on the BJP election slogans, the Congress leader said: "It is strange that the BJP slogan in the 2014 elections was "abki baar 280 paar" and they achieved an absolute majority with 282 seats out of 543, 166 more than previous 15th Lok Sabha."

Kerala's ruling CPI-M on Friday gave enough indications that the Sabarimala issue and even Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's leadership were to blame for the party's debacle in the Lok Sabha elections.

The party's Kerala state Secretariat dismissed Vijayan's contention that the Sabarimala row was never an issue in the campaign.

The CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front won just one of the state's 20 seats, down from 8 in 2014, with the Congress-led UDF bagging the rest. The BJP-led NDA came second in only Thiruvananthapuram and third everywhere else.

Newly elected MPs of BJP-led NDA to meet tomorrow at 5 pm, expected to formally elect PM Narendra Modi as their leader

More than 1.54 lakh voters exercised NOTA (None of the Above) option in Punjab where Congress registered an impressive victory by winning eight of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the general election.

As many as 1,54,423 voters (1.12 per cent of total votes polled) pressed the NOTA option, as per election office data.

Among 13 Lok Sabha seats, it was Faridkot constituency where maximum number of voters rejected the candidates. A total of 19,246 voters in Faridkot went for NOTA, as per EC data available.

Union Cabinet to meet at 5 pm on Friday. 17th Lok Sabha to be constituted before June 3. Election Commission to give a list of newly elected members to President.

The BJP, which won 24 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan where it had lost the 2018 assembly polls to the Congress, saw its vote share increase from 54.94 per cent in 2014 to 58.5 per cent in this general election.

Over 5,000 voters opted for the none of the above (NOTA) button in elections to the Muzaffarnagar parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh, election officials said.

Ten candidates were in the fray for Muzaffarnagar seat which was retained by BJP's Sanjeev Kumar Balyan, who defeated his nearest rival and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh by 6,526 votes. According to the election officials, 5,061 voters opted for NOTA here.

While Balyan secured 5,73,780 votes, Singh polled 5,67,254 votes. Independent candidate Neel Kumar got 4,884 votes -- less than what was polled for NOTA.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at senior BJP leader LK Advani's residence. BJP president Amit Shah also present

BJP candidate from Puri, Sambit Patra has lost by over 11,000 votes to Biju Janata Dal's Pinaki Misra.

Sikkim Democratic Front won 15 seats and Sikkim Krantikari Morcha won 17 seats, out of total 32 assembly constituency seats.

BJP wins on 295 seats, leading on 8; Congress wins on 52 seats, out of total 542 Parliamentary constituency seats.