The rupee plunged 26 paise to 83.40 against the US dollar in early trade on Tuesday as initial counting for the Lok Sabha elections indicated a mixed trend. A weak trend in domestic equity markets also dented sentiments in early deals, forex traders said. According to television reports, the BJP-led NDA surged ahead with leads in more than 200 parliamentary seats out of 350 for which trends were available, with the opposition INDIA bloc ahead in 120.