Narender Modi
NEW DELHI, India (May 16, 2014)—Narendra Modi today stormed to power at the Center giving Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) its highest ever tally in the parliamentary elections of India, securing for the party a majority on its own, and in the process handing out the worst ever defeat to Congress.
BJP won todtal 283 seats, ten more than the required halfway mark in 543 member House.
Congress was virtually decimated as it bagged only 43 seats throughout the country. Party president Sonia Gandhi, and Vice President Rahul Gandhi accepted responsibility for the defeat.
Riding the Modi wave, BJP has come a long way from a party of two Lok Sabha members in 1984. Even at the height of the popularity of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, it could manage to get only 182 in 1998 and 1999, on the back of the demolition of Babri Masjid.
A massive 12 per cent increase in its vote share in the current elections has propelled the party to new heights while in 2009, it had secured only 116 seats on the basis of 18.8 per cent vote share.
On the other hand, the Congress plummeted from a tally of 206 in 2009, to less than 50 seats on the loss of around 10 per cent vote share from 28.5 per cent.
The Congress found it difficult to cross the double digit mark in most of the states as BJP swept Gujarat (26), Rajasthan (25), Delhi (7), Uttarakhand (5), Himachal Pradesh (4) and Goa (2).
BJP also nearly swept the crucial heartland state of Uttar Pradesh where it bagged 53 seats and was ahead in 18 of the total 80 seats. Its ally Apna Dal was leading in two seats.
All the other seats were won by two political families.
Only regional parties All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK), Trinamool Congress and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) were able to stymie the saffron march in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Odisha.
AIADMK won 18 seats, and was leading in 19, while All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 25 and was ahead in 9. BJD was set for a near sweep as it was leading in 19 of 21 seats.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal, had claimed to rouse a big revolution in India, but received a huge setback as it received no seat across the country, except in Punjab where it secured four seats: Bhagwant Mann (Sangrur), Prof. Sadhu Singh (Fridkot), Dr. Dharamvir Gandhi (Patiala), and Harinder Singh Khalsa (Fatehgarh Sahib).