Union Minister Virendra Kumar, a Dalit leader, retained the Tikamgarh constituency in Madhya Pradesh for the eighth time while Pankaj Choudhary is heading for a seventh term in the Lok Sabha.
Among the candidates securing a hat-trick were Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur, BJP leaders Jitendra Singh from Udhampur and Jugal Kishore from Jammu, Bhola Singh from Bulandhshar and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) leader Shrirang Barne from Maval in Mumbai.
Pankaj Choudhary, the Union minister of state for finance and an OBC face, was leading from Maharajganj in Uttar Pradesh by a margin of over 36,000 votes at 6 pm.
BJP candidates Inderjit Singh and Shivraj Chouhan, and Trinamool Congress' Sudip Bandhopadhyay are also set to win a sixth term in the Lok Sabha.
Union Minister Inderjit Singh, a five-time parliamentarian with three of them from the Gurgaon seat, was leading by a margin of 77,594 votes. His party colleague Chouhan, who represented Vidisha in the Lok Sabha from 1991 to 2004, is set to secure a sixth term and was leading by a margin of over 8.21 lakh votes.
TMC's Bandopadhyay from Kolkata Uttar Lok Sabha constituency, is set to be in the Lok Sabha for a sixth term and was leading by a margin of over 49,000 votes. AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi is likely to retain the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat for a fifth term and was leading by a margin of over 3.38 lakh votes. Shiromani Akali Dal's Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is seeking a fourth term from Bhatinda, was leading by a margin of 50,000 votes at 4.30 pm.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor retained the Thiruvananthapuram seat for the fourth consecutive time by a margin of 16,077 votes. JDU's Nalanda MP Kaushalendra Kumar was also heading for a fourth term with a lead of over 1,35,608 votes.
Union Minister Rajnath Singh from Lucknow is heading for a hat-trick and was leading by a margin of 1,02,769 votes. BJP's Mahesh Sharma from Gautam Buddha Nagar, Sakshi Maharaj from Unnao, Hema Malini from Mathura and Satish Kumar Gautam from Aligarh are also among the candidates heading for a hat-trick.
