Falling short of a hat-trick in attaining the magic figure of 272 seats on its own steam in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, results of which were declared on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 240 seats, 32 short of 272 seat majority. For the NDA which had secured 330 seats in 2019 elections, the total tally could not even cross the 300 seats mark and remained at 293.
The saffron party had managed a thumping win with 282 seat majority in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections for the 16th Lok Sabha, giving the party a first ever major win to enter the temple of democracy in history of free India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The maiden success of BJP which received 31% of vote share had throttled the National Democratic Alliance to win a total of 336 seats in 16th Lok Sabha.
Increasing its seat tally in 2019 on its own, the party secured a clear 303 majority, pushing the total tally of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to 353 seats. The BJP received 37.36% vote share in 17th Lok Sabha.
However, this time, BJP, 32 short of majority mark of 272 seats suffered major setbacks in states of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, etc. Interestingly the loss of BJP proved to be boon for the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress which emerged major beneficiaries of the BJP’s loss.
SP led by its supremo Akhilesh Yadav had won just 5 seats of the total contested 78 in 2014 which remained at 5 seats in 2019 polls also. However, in 18th Lok Sabha elections, the count swelled to 44 in Uttar Pradesh pushing BJP on the second spot with 35 seats. In 2019, BJP had won 72 of the total 80 parliamentary seats in UP.
However, in 18 Lok Sabha NDA government would have to majorly depend on support of allies the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by Chandrababu Naidu and the Janata Dal (Unite) led by Nitish Kumar. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 291 seats against the Congress-led INDIA bloc’s 233 seats. The Congress won 99 seats compared to 52 in 2019.
Post declaration of results, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the people for their faith in him and the NDA on X (earlier Twitter) “People have placed their faith in NDA, for a third consecutive time! This is a historical feat in India’s history. I bow to the Janata Janardan for this affection and assure them that we will continue the good work done in the last decade to keep fulfilling the aspirations of people. I also salute all our Karyakartas for their hard work. Words will never do justice to their exceptional efforts.”
A visibly moved Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his arrival at BJP headquarter on Tuesday evening, and welcomed by Home minister Amit Shah and Defence minister Rajnath Singh, heaped praise on the Election Commission (EC) for successfully conducting world’s biggest elections besides acknowledged the role of women voters for their large turnout.
He said that this was the first time that he had won an election without his mother at his side but acknowledged the support of all the mothers in the country for which he felt blessed.
Referring to the fact that 2024 would also mark 75 years of framing of the Indian Constitution, Modi said that “our Constitution was our guiding light. We would work hard for the development of our nation. This is the time to move forward in unity for the bright future of the country.”
