 "Union Minister and BJP candidate from Lucknow, Rajnath Singh, and his wife Savitri Singh show their finger marked with indelible ink after casting vote")
Several union ministers gained from the Narendra Modi wave to win Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, leaving out Hardeep Puri and KJ Alphons.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi conceded defeat in Amethi, bowing to textiles minister Smriti Irani. The minister was leading by 55,686 votes against Gandhi till midnight. The official announcement of results on the seats was delayed as matching of electronic voting machine (EVM) counts with voter verifiable audit trail(VVPAT) slips continued till late night.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi retained Varanasi by defeating Samajwadi Party candidate Shalini Yadav by over 4,79,505 votes. He increased his victory margin as compared
