This Week in Explainers: Decoding the Lok Sabha election results

What a week it has been for India. One full of surprises. The results for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 were declared and they defied exit poll predictions . The Narendra Modi-led NDA emerged victorious but not with the margin they hoped for. The Opposition INDIA bloc performed far better than expected.

With Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party winning 240 seats, it is far from the majority mark of 272 to stake claim to form the government alone. The party is now dependent on its alliance partners, the Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United), giving them bargaining power .

Hectic parleys are on in New Delhi over government formation, as both Kumar and Naidu seek plum posts.

Our weekly roundup is an election results special. We take a deep dive into all that has happened since counting day, 4 June. What went wrong for the BJP-led NDA, what worked in favour of them? We decode the performance of the INDIA bloc and what the changing political landscape means for the country.

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1. 400 paar. That was the target the Modi-led NDA had in mind for this election. However, it was nowhere close. The alliance failed to reach even the 300 mark, having secured 292 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. The BJP alone was reduced to 240 seats, a sharp drop from 303 it bagged in 2019.

So what went wrong for the saffron party? There were many factors at play. We explain .

2. As far as politics goes, reaching New Delhi means you have to surpass Uttar Pradesh. With 80 seats in the Lok Sabha, the state has dictated many an election outcome. This time BJP’s performance has a lot to do with the state.

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This year, the BJP won 33 seats in the state, losing to the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance which bagged 43 seats. The biggest shocker came from Ayodhya, where it lost five out of the nine seats. The Faizabad constituency in which the grand Ram Mandir was inaugurated early this year was won by the SP.

The BJP’s temple plank did not win any brownie points. Here’s why .

3. Uttar Pradesh decided to ditch the BJP. But that was not the only state which threw up surprising results. Maharashtra, Haryana and Rajasthan also did not stick to their usual voting patterns.

So which way did your state vote? Find out here .

4. You win some, you lose some. This election saw some unexpected victors. It was not surprising that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah won from their respective constituencies, Varanasi and Gandhinagar. For the BJP, a loss that hurt them was that of Smriti Irani from Amethi. While actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut won, National Conference’s Omar Abdullah lost. In this report, we track the performances of some of the political bigwigs.

5. Here’s some election trivia. The BJP got 69 lakh more votes as compared to 2019. How then did it win 63 fewer seats? We explain the math .

6. A day after the results were out, there was buzz that the INDI Alliance would stake claim to forming the government. But later Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge announced that the bloc would present a united Opposition in Parliament against the NDA. What made the grouping change its mind? Read to find out more .

7. While NDA will form the government, its third term in power will be different. The spotlight is on coalition politics. With no absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, the BJP will need the constant backing of its alliance partners to introduce reforms. But each has an ideology of its own.

Will the saffron party put on hold some of its pet projects like “ One Nation, One Poll” and the Uniform Civil Code ? We take a look.

8. There will be several new faces in the Cabinet. The kingmakers Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar have their eyes on some key portfolios. So what will the BJP keep? Will it give Nitish Railways? Nothing is set in stone but here is what one can expect .

Happy reading! These explainers will help you understand the election results. And if we have piqued your interest, you can find some more here .