Modi leads by about 70,000 votes in Varanasi at noon

BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has established a huge lead of nearly 90,000 votes against his nearest rival Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party.
According to trends available by noon, Modi had secured 96,243 votes as against Kejriwal's 27,101.
Sensing a certain victory for their leader from this eastern UP Lok Sabha seat, BJP supporters started celebrating at the Paharia Sabzi Mandi on the outskirts of the city, where counting of votes is in progress.
Beating of drums and chanting of slogans in praise of Modi were heard near the counting centre.
Ajay Rai of the Congress, who had been a distant third since morning, was now trailing at the fourth position with 11,484 votes.

By noon, the Congress candidate had conceded the third spot to Vijay Prakash Jaiswal who had secured 12,340 votes.
Kailash Chaurasia of the Samajwadi Party, which is in power in Uttar Pradesh, has so far remained at the fifth position with 10,101 votes polled in his favour by noon.