Rahul Gandhi never backed down and never stopped fighting for the truth, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said of her brother on Wednesday, a day after the party's good showing in the Lok Sabha polls.

Marking the end of his 24-year-rule in Odisha, BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday resigned from the post of the chief minister after the defeat of his party in the assembly elections in the state.

INDIA bloc leaders will meet at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence Wednesday evening to decide on the strategy to form the government and whether to reach out to former allies Nitish Kumar and N Chandrababu Naidu.

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections have concluded with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) securing 294 seats out of the 543-member Parliament, a mere 22 seats shy of a two-thirds majority. On the opposing front, the INDIA Opposition bloc, comprising various regional and national parties, clinched 234 seats, falling short of the majority mark by 38 seats.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and JDU's Nitish Kumar, whose support is key to the formation of the next government, have to decide whether they want to join hands with an autocrat, a remark apparently aimed at the BJP leadership.

TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday said his party was in NDA and that he will be attending the National Democratic Alliance meeting to be held in New Delhi later in the day.

Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step down after the party fell short of an outright majority in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. In a tweet posted after the vote counting, Swamy criticized the leadership, suggesting that any self-respecting leader would resign under such circumstances.

Renowned journalist Ravish Kumar has strongly criticized the media, referring to it as the "killer of democracy" in his latest tweet following the counting of votes for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. His comments come amidst a heated political environment, with the BJP-led NDA securing a lead, yet facing uncertainty over the formation of a stable government.