Polling personnel count votes at AN College in Patna on Friday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

The most awaited day of Lok Sabha elections 2014 was marked with nail-biting suspense and excitement for most candidates as the EVMs were opened one after the other on the counting day on Friday.

The overall verdict of the voters in support of the BJP was reflected in the initial trends itself. But as the counting progressed, twists and turns unfolded. The Telegraph charts some of the keen contests:

Daughter trails

Encounter: Misa Bharti (RJD) vs Ram Kripal Yadav (BJP)

Battleground: Pataliputra

Timeline: Till the 10th round, Misa was leading in. Between 12noon and 1pm, the scenario changed and Ram Kripal started leading from the 14th round. At 2pm, he was ahead by 17,388 votes. By 7pm, the margin in favour of Ram Kripal increased to 39,754 votes

Result: The Election Commission of India did not make an official announcement of the results of this constituency by the time of the filing the report but Ram Kripal was, in all likelihood, set to be the winner

Pilot flies

Encounter: Rabri Devi (RJD) vs Rajiv Pratap Rudy (BJP)

Battleground: Saran

Timeline: Rudy was in front right from the beginning. He was ahead of Rabri by 2,354 votes after the first round, which got over around 9am. At the end of four rounds by 10am, he had a lead of 9,849 votes. His margin increased to 22,092 votes after 12 rounds around 12noon. The margin in favour of Rudy kept on increasing with every passing hour as it stood at 38,097 by 2pm, 40,887 by 4pm and 40,860 votes by 7pm

Result: The Election Commission of India did not make an official announcement of the result of this constituency by the time of filing the report but Rudi was, in all likelihood, set to be the winner

Keen contest

Encounter: Syed Shahnawaz Hussain (BJP) vs Shailesh Kumar alias Bulo Mandal (RJD)

Battleground: Bhagalpur

Timeline: The battle was close. Bulo was found to be leading in the first round by 4,714 votes at 9am, by 7,415 votes at 10am and by 8,127 votes at 12noon. But around 2pm the scale tilted in favour of Shahnawaz as the margin of Bulo came down to 5,319. It was down to 881 votes by 4pm. At 6pm, Shahnawaz was ahead by 5,734 votes. However, Bulo again took the lead around 7pm with a margin of 9,485 votes ahead of Shahnawaz

Result: Bulo was set to be declared the winner

Morning shows the day

Encounter: Between Ashwini Kumar Choubey (BJP), Dadan Yadav (BSP) and Jagdanand Singh (RJD)

Battleground: Buxar

Timeline: Veteran RJD leader Jagdanand Singh was in the third position in the initial rounds. Choubey had a lead of 4,294 votes against Dadan around 9am. At 10am also, Choubey was 16,689 ahead of Jagdanand. At 12noon, Choubey was leading by 42,240 votes with Dadan in the second position. The margin for Choubey surged to 87,086 votes by 2pm and to a whopping 1,23,086 by 4pm. At 6pm, his lead was 1,32,338 votes

Result: Choubey was declared the winner

Always ahead

Encounter: Raghuvansh Kumar Singh (RJD) vs Rama Kishore Singh (LJP)

Battleground: Vaishali

Timeline: Rama was leading right from the beginning. At 10am, he had a lead of 3,170 votes over Raghuvansh, which increased to 11,676 votes by 12noon. The margin in favour of Rama increased to 21,948 votes by 2pm and 44,263 votes by 4pm. At 7pm, Rama had a margin of 87,485 votes

Result: The Election Commission of India did not make an official announcement of the results of this constituency by the time of the filing of the report but Rama Kishore was, in all likelihood, set to be declared the winner

Great debut

Encounter: Chirag Kumar Paswan (LJP) vs Sudhansu Shekhar Bhaskar (RJD)

Battleground: Jamui

Timeline: Chirag seemed to have a clean sweep in his debut in poll ring as he was ahead right from the beginning till the end. At 9am, he was ahead of the RJD candidate by a margin of 4,450 votes ahead. It increased to 36,691 votes by 12 noon and 85,947 by 4pm

Result: At 6pm, Chirag was declared the winner by 85,947 votes

Speaker loses

Encounter: Meira Kumar (Congress) vs Chhedi Paswan (BJP)

Battleground: Sasaram

Screenplay: Chhedi was leading right from the beginning. At 9am, he was 11,928 votes ahead of Meira. The margin of Chhedi increased to 54,427 by 12noon and 63,327 at 4pm

Result: Chhedi was declared the winner