The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance is on course to return to the Parliament with a thumping majority. At 3.30 pm, the NDA led the race by 343 seats, five more than the seats it won in 2014. The BJP itself was leading in 298 seats, 16 more than it won in the last general elections.

The clear majority evident so early on elicited diverse reactions on social media. Cartoonists led the way in showing how to make sense of the election results.

Here’s a throwback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cloud theory, when he suggested earlier in the month that clouds could help Indian planes evade enemy radars.

Another cartoonist had a more ominous take on the election results.

An user considered how Congress President Rahul Gandhi would explain his party’s huge losses.

Another suggested that much of what has gone on for the past five years will be repeated.

While BJP supporters celebrated on Twitter, many were aghast at the prospect of the party returning to power, particularly looking at BJP candidate and terror-accused Pragya Thakur’s lead over her opponents in Bhopal.

Republic TV and the enthusiasm of its anchor, Arnab Goswami, didn’t manage to escape attention.

Some Twitter users, visibly alarmed by the power imbalance that the results will bring, tried to cope with humour. Here’s a classic reference from Rajkumar Hirani’s Munnabhai MBBS (2003).

Of course, some quips referred to the most talked-about pop culture event this year: Game Of Thrones.

The BJP, however, could not make much gains in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, according to the leads so far. There’s a GOT reference for everything, isn’t it?

One user was understandably focused on gastronomical concerns, looking at the BJP’s sweep in West Bengal. The hard-selling of the values of vegetarianism by several BJP members does not sit quite well with the meat-loving Bengali.

Modi interviewer, actor and Canadian citizen Akshay Kumar wasn’t spared.

The Indian History Pics Twitter account, as always, shared a series of old pictures relevant to the day and context. Here’s one for the dismayed Indians keeping track of the counting of votes.

With so much going on in India at the moment, even God could not help but make a statement.