Hindustan Times

Dhrubo Jyoti

Dipankar Ghose

The Congress slumps to its worst-ever showing. For the BJP, some of the highest vote shares by a single party since the 1980s.

The first single-party majority in a generation

The nine-phase 2014 general election delivered the first single-party majority in a generation to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won 282 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats that went to the polls. In contrast, saddled with corruption charges and anti-incumbency, the Congress slumped to its worst-ever showing, at 44 seats. Significant for the BJP was its domination of Uttar Pradesh, where it won 71 of the 80 seats on offer, helped no doubt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to contest from Varanasi. A clutch of regional parties, too, performed well: the Trinamool Congress picked up 34 of 42 seats in West Bengal, the Biju Janata Dal secured 20 of 21 seats in Odisha, and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam won 37 of 39 seats in Tamil Nadu.In 2019, the BJP managed to increase its tally, getting the highest vote share by a party since the 1989 election, and winning 303 seats. The National Democratic Alliance coasted to victory, with the United Progressive Alliance a very distant second. The Congress managed a meagre 52 seats, a bulk of it coming from the southern states.

The BJP swept the Hindi heartland (62 out of 65 seats in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, 62 of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, and 39 of 40 in Bihar, along with allies). A key takeaway was the BJP’s inroads in provinces where it was traditionally weak, such as West Bengal (18 of 42 seats) and Odisha (8 of 21 seats), as was its impressive win over the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party combine in Uttar Pradesh (62 of 80 seats). Some regional parties did well again, such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu (24 of 39 seats; its alliance partner, the Congress, won 8) and the YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh (22 of 25 seats).