The six-week-long campaign trail for the 18th Lok Sabha has concluded. On Tuesday's results, the NDA surpassed the majority mark, but the BJP managed only 240 seats. The incumbent NDA won 291 seats while the opposition INDIA block secured 234.
This election was particularly tough for NDA. Having crossed the 350 mark in the 2019 elections, it couldn't even secure 300 seats this time. On the other hand, the opposition's unity proved to be their strength.
The BJP suffered the biggest blow. It had independently secured majority in both 2014 and 2019 elections, but fell short of the magical majority number of 272 this year, leading to several high-profile defeats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi clinched a third consecutive election victory from Varanasi. However, his margin was the smallest yet compared to the sweeping wins in 2014 and 2019. Congress' Ajay Rai, who finished third in the past two elections, improved his performance significantly. PM Modi won this election with a margin of 1.52 lakh votes, whereas his previous victory margin was 4.79 lakh votes. Modi is the second Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power for a third consecutive term.
Source: aajtak
Similarly, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's winning margin decreased as well. In Wayanad, he won by a margin of 4.31 lakh votes in 2019, but this election saw him beat CPI's Annie Raja with a 3.64 lakh vote margin. BJP's K. Surendran came third with 1.41 lakh votes. Gandhi also competed from Raebareli, where he achieved an even larger victory margin than in Wayanad, defeating BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh by more than 3.90 lakh votes.
Source: aajtak
Of the 19 ministers from the Modi government who were contesting the elections, 18 emerged victorious, while Smriti Irani faced defeat in Amethi against Congress' Kishori Lal Sharma by a margin exceeding 1.67 lakh votes. The biggest victory came from Gujarat's Gandhinagar where Home Minister Amit Shah won against Congress' Sonal Patel by a margin of 7.44 lakh votes.
Several current ministers from the Modi government lost this election, including Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Thiruvananthapuram, Arjun Munda from Khunti, Mahendra Nath Pandey from Chandauli, and Ajay Mishra Teni from Lakhimpur Kheri.
Source: aajtak
However, NDA did shine in six states, winning over 80% of the seats in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. Out of 118 in these states, NDA claimed 111 seats. In contrast, the INDIA block saw tremendous success in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, clinching over 80% of the seats, with victories in all of Tamil Nadu's 39 and 18 of Kerala's 20 seats.
Source: aajtak
In Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, NDA significantly improved its tally from 29 seats in the previous election to 40. However, it suffered losses totaling 58 seats in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan.
Source: aajtak
In a stark comparison, the INDIA block profited in five states: Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Bihar. Here, they seized control of 100 seats, a stark rise from the 18 seats they had in the previous election.
Source: aajtak
Although NDA faced a setback in seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC), the INDIA block made significant gains winning 93 of the 156 SC-predominant seats. The NDA lost 34 SC seats as compared to the last elections, whereas the INDIA block won 57 more seats than before.
