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

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when the BJP had won 303 seats in a commanding victory, it had won 224 of them with more than 50% of the vote share. This time, not only did the BJP fall short of an outright majority, getting 240 seats, it won only 156 of them with more than 50% vote share.

In 2019, of the 224 seats won by the BJP by more than 50% of votes, it got more than 70% of the votes in seven seats, between 60% and 70% in 77 seats, and between 50% and 60% in another 140 seats.

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.

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