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New Delhi:

The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has crossed the halfway mark in the Lok Sabha elections, but the lead is narrower than what exit polls had predicted. The NDA is currently ahead on 290 seats, while the opposition INDIA alliance is ahead on 234. A party or an alliance needs to cross the 272 mark in the 543 member Lok Sabha to form the government.

The narrow margin has prompted talks that the Opposition may reach out to some of the BJP’s allies, a charge Nationalist Congress Party patriarch Sharad Pawar has denied.

During a press conference, Mr Pawar denied reports that he has reached out to Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) head Chandrababu Naidu.

Media reports said that Mr Pawar dialled the two leaders with an aim of taking INDIA alliance past the 272-mark.

Responding to the reports, he said, “I have not spoken to Chandrababu Naidu, Nitish Kumar or anybody else.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems set to continue for a third consecutive term, but the numbers were well short of the landslide predicted in exit polls.

The BJP applecart appears to have been upset by the heartland state of Uttar Pradesh, which has pushed the INDIA bloc — Samajwadi Party and the Congress — ahead in more than 40 of its 80 seats at 3 pm. The BJP is in mid-thirties. The BJP had swept Uttar Pradesh in 2014 and held of its ground in 2019. This time most exit polls had predicted an edge for the party.

Two of the other battleground states have also not gone the BJP’s way. In Bengal, the party’s big hope, it could fare worse than 2019, leading in only 11 seats at 3 pm. Mamata Banerjee’s  Trinamool Congress appears to have recovered much of the lost ground and is ahead in 31 seats.