From 224 seats with 50%-plus vote share in 2019, BJP falls to 156 in 2024

In 2024, it again won seven seats with more than 70% of the votes, but won half of the seats it had got in 2019, that is 39 seats, with 60% to 70% vote share. The seats it won with 50% to 60% vote share also fell, from 140 to 110.

Besides, the party won 78 seats with 40% to 50% vote share, and another five with 30% to 40% vote share. In Surat, there was no polling as the BJP candidate was the only one in the fray.

Among the 224 seats the party had won with more than 50% vote share in 2019, the BJP retained 176 this time, and lost 45. Of these, 29 seats were lost to the Congress and eight to the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Three of the 224 seats were left by the BJP for its allies JD(U), JD(S) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) this time, and all three won.

Breakdown of seat won by BJP with more than 50% vote share

Across the 176 seats that it won with more than 50% votes which the BJP retained from 2019, its vote share fell in 132 seats and rose by 5% points or more in just 12 seats.

Across all the 224 seats, excluding those that the BJP left to its allies and the Surat seat which the party won uncontested, the BJP’s vote share fell by an average of 5.31% points. In Rajasthan’s Barmer, the decline was from 59.52% votes in 2019 to just 17%, with the Congress winning the seat this time.

Of the 156 seats the BJP won this time with more than 50% vote share, just 10 are seats the BJP had failed to win in 2019, while five are those it had won with less than 50% votes.

In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP won all 25 seats with more than 50% vote share, the highest such tally from a single state and a feat it had achieved in 2019 too. The party won 23 of Gujarat’s 26 seats with more than half the vote share, and 17 of Karnataka’s total 28 seats with similar votes.

In four other states where the BJP won all the seats – Delhi (seven), Uttarakhand (five), Himachal Pradesh (four) and Tripura (two) – all these victories came with more than 50% vote share. The party had similarly swept Delhi, Uttarakhand and Himachal in 2019 too.

State-wise seats won by the BJP with more than 50% vote share

The BJP’s poor performances in states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are notable as the party had won a significant chunk of its seats, including with more than half the vote share, from these states in 2019. Last time, the party had won 40 of UP’s total 80 seats with more than 50% vote share, a figure that has dropped to just 13 this time. In Maharashtra, its 50%-plus seats fell from 15 to 5, and in Rajasthan, from 23 to 12.

Among the 53 seats won by the BJP’s NDA partners this time, 30 were won with more than 50% vote share. Of the Telugu Desam Party’s (TDP’s) 16 wins, 13 came with a vote share greater than 50%. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ramvilas) won the next highest number of seats with more than 50% vote share – four of the total five it won in Bihar – followed by the JD(U) at three of its total 12 wins.

The other NDA members that won such seats are the JD(S), Shiv Sena and JanaSena Party at two each, and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Hindustan Awami Morcha (Secular), NCP and RLD at one each.

Opposition’s 50%-plus wins

The members of the INDIA bloc won 68 of their total 233 seats with more than 50% of the vote share, compared to 54 of their total 120 seats in 2019 (excluding the Shiv Sena and NCP, which were united at the time).

The Congress won 37 out of its 99 seats with more than 50% vote share. The next largest party with such wins was the DMK, at eight seats, followed by the TMC at seven seats.

Seats won with more than 50% vote share by INDIA bloc parties

Of the 68 seats won by the INDIA bloc with more than half the vote share, none came with more than 70% votes, eight were between 60% and 70%, and the remaining 60 were between 50% and 60%.

The most 50%-plus vote share wins for the INDIA bloc came from Tamil Nadu, where the DMK won eight such seats, followed by the Congress at two and the CPI(M) at one. In Maharashtra, the INDIA bloc won nine seats with more than half the vote share – five for the Congress and two each for the NCP(SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT). In Rajasthan, the Congress won six seats with more than half the vote share, the CPI(M) and the Bharat Adivasi Party one each.

The other states where the INDIA bloc won seats similarly included West Bengal (seven); Uttar Pradesh (six); Karnataka and Kerala (five each); Assam, Jharkhand and Telangana (three each); Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir (two each); and Lakshadweep, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Puducherry (one each).