General Election 2014: Resounding victory for BJP, Congress faces drubbing in 6 states

May 17, 2014

World’s biggest democratic exercise- India’s 16^th Lok Sabha (Lower House) elections which ran from April, 7 to May 12, 2014 are over and its verdict is out. Of the total 543 seats for which elections were contested, BJP led NDA achieved a thumping victory on 336 seats, whereas, Congress led UPA has faced thorough defeat in 6 key states winning just 59 seats, and the Congress, 44 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which contested on 424 seats has faced debacle as it could win just 4 seats. AAP leader and former Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejrival, who contested against the Narendra Modi from Varanasi, defeated by a huge margin of more than 3 lakh votes.
With this NDA victory, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is all set to be the head of the newly elected Indian Government.
Some high spots of Lok Sabha polls 2014:

It was 16^th Lok Sabha election.
Election Commission of India conducted election in 9 phases, longest election in the country’s history.
8,251 candidates contested for 543 constituencies in India.
814.5 million People were eligible voters, with an increase of 100 million voters since the last general election in 2009, making this the largest-ever election in the world.
Average election turnout was around 66.38%, the highest ever in the history of Indian general elections.
With more than six times the seats of its closest contenders, Modi’s is the most decisive mandate for a leader since the 1984 assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi propelled her son to office. Since 1989, India has been governed by coalitions.
With 282 seats, the BJP has won the highest number of seats by a single party in the modern, post-regional politics era, compared with 244 for the Congress in 1991 and 206 for it in 2009.
It is the worst ever performance by Congress compared to its show in other previous General Elections.
Since 1977, the BJP is the first non-Congress party to defeat Congress by such a huge margin. However, the biggest tally of seats achieved by a non-Congress party is 295 won by the Janata Party in the 1977 post-Emergency election that ousted Mrs. Gandhi from office.
BJP registered its biggest win in Uttar Pradesh winning 71 seats despite a big coalition partner, the best performance by a single party in the state since 1984 when the Congress won 83 of 85 seats.

Results Lok Sabha Polls 2014: