After a long-drawn process, the election results for all the 543 seats were announced by the Election Commission of India early morning yesterday.

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) falling short of the magic number that would have given it sole majority in the Lok Sabha, the party will have to rely on its allies to form the next government.

The BJP has bagged a total of 240 seats, short of the majority marker of 272, and has called a meeting of the NDA parties in New Delhi today. Adding up the seats won by the allies, the NDA has secured a comfortable majority.

At the same time, none of the members of the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc crossed the majority mark. The bloc, which bagged over 200 seats, will also hold a meeting today to chalk out its next steps.

Meanwhile, with 28 seats between them, N. Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) hold the balance of the BJP-led NDA in their hands. Both parties have re-pledged their allegiance to the NDA and have confirmed that they will be present at the alliance’s meeting.

The results of the two Assembly elections, in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, brought in the change of the incumbent government. With BJP taking a landslide victory in Odihsa, Naveen Patnaik’s 24-year tenure came to an end, while Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party, gave a crushing defeat to Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh.