An analysis of data released by the Election Commission of India (ECI) revealed that 178 Lok Sabha members were elected with 30% or fewer votes from their constituencies in the 2024 General Elections, a significant rise from 125 in 2019. This figure accounts for nearly one-third of the 542 members in the Lok Sabha.

Party-wise, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had 57 out of its 240 MPs elected with 30% or fewer votes, while 30 of Congress’ 99 MPs and 31 of the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) 37 MPs were elected with similar vote shares. In eight constituencies, MPs were elected with just 10% to 20% of the votes, while 170 MPs secured their seats with vote shares ranging from 20% to 30%. The largest group, 266 MPs, won with 30% to 40% of the votes, followed by 92 MPs with 40% to 50% of the votes. Only six MPs managed to secure a majority vote share of over 50%.

Among the states, Uttar Pradesh led with 65 MPs elected with 30% or fewer votes, followed by 30 in Bihar and 24 in Maharashtra.

Regarding the overall vote share, six national parties participated in the elections—AAP, BSP, SP, BJP, CPI-M, and INC—collectively garnering 63.35% of the total valid votes. The BJP received the highest number of votes at 23.59 crore, followed by Congress with 13.67 crore votes and SP with 2.95 crore votes.

The 2024 elections also saw a rise in candidates losing their security deposits, with 7,190 losing their ₹25,000 deposits, up from 6,923 in 2019. Of the 3,921 independent candidates, only seven secured a Lok Sabha seat, while 3,905 lost their deposits.

Input ( BS )