BJP’s loss map: Lost 92 of its 303 seats, won in 32 new constituencies

Of the 303 seats the BJP won in 2019, it retained 208 this time, lost 92, and gave three to its allies — Janata Dal (United), Janata Dal (Secular), and Rashtriya Lok Dal — who won a seat each. It won 32 new seats in 2024 pushing its tally to 240.

An analysis of the 92 seats it lost shows telling patterns:

The spread of BJP’s loss was even in General Category seats as well as reserve categories. Of the 92 seats the BJP lost, 63 were in General, 18 reserved for SCs and 11 for STs.

These seats were mostly in rural areas but included urban seats like Mumbai North Central and Mumbai North East, where Congress and its allies defeated the BJP.

Of the 92 seats, 11 constituencies — Aurangabad, Dumka, Lohardaga, Gulbarga, Raichur, Gadchiroli-Chimur, Barmer, Karauli-Dholpur, Banda, Chandauli, and Fatehpur — were in the Aspirational Districts, the poorest districts of the country.

In the Aspirational Districts too, the Congress and the SP hit the BJP the most, by winning 6 and 3 seats of the 11 seats lost by the BJP in these districts.

Of the 92 seats, the Congress wrested a maximum 42 seats from the BJP, which included 9 in Maharashtra, 8 in Rajasthan and 4 in Uttar Pradesh.

The Samajwadi Party won 25 seats against the BJP, and all of them were in UP. The All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) in Bengal, and Nationalist Congress Party-Sharad Pawar (NCP-SP) in Maharashtra bagged 8 and 5 seats respectively. The other parties who won against BJP in those 92 seats, were Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharat Adivasi Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Liberation) – CPI(ML)(L), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar, Rashtriya Janata Dal, and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb