Counting day: Union ministers lead across seats, show early trends

Home minister Amit Shah is leading in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, against Congress’ Sonal Patel and defence minister Rajnath Singh has also taken a lead in Lucknow against the Samajwadi Party’s Ravidas Mehrotra.

Several Union ministers in the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance cabinet are leading, early counting trends on Tuesday showed.

Election officials open an EVM at a counting centre in Ahmedabad (REUTERS)

Home minister Amit Shah is leading in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, against Congress’ Sonal Patel and defence minister Rajnath Singh has also taken a lead in Lucknow against the Samajwadi Party’s Ravidas Mehrotra.

Union minister Piyush Goyal is leading in the Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency, where he is pitted against the Congress’s Bhushan Patil. Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari takes the lead as well seeking his third term from Nagpur against Vikas Thakre, Union minister Anurag Thakur is eyeing his fifth consecutive term, as he leads Congress leader Satpal Raizada state in the Hamirpur constituency of Himachal Pradesh.

Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is also leading from Guna eyeing another term and is up against Congress Rao Yadvendra Singh. Guna seat is a stronghold of the Scindia family.