NEW DELHI: Counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections began on Tuesday morning across states and Union Territories.

While the Lok Sabha has 543 members, counting is being held for 542 seats after the BJP's Surat candidate Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed.

Counting of votes is also underway for the assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, where polling was held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections.

Elections to the assemblies of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim were also held alongside the Lok Sabha polls. The results of these elections were declared on June 2.

According to the Conduct of Election Rules, postal ballots will be counted first and the process of counting of votes recorded in electronic voting machines (EVMs) will begin 30 minutes later.

The process of counting votes cast through postal ballots and EVMs will continue simultaneously.

Since 2019, VVPAT (voter verifiable paper audit trail) slips from five randomly selected polling stations per assembly constituency -- or segment in case of Lok Sabha seats -- are matched with the EVM count for greater transparency.