New Delhi, May 26
The BJP-led NDA may have scored a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections, but it faced a tough fight in the first three phases of polling held in 302 constituencies.
In the remaining four phases of polling held in 240 constituencies, however, the ruling alliance just trounced the Opposition, according to an analysis conducted by IANS.
Of the 302 parliamentary constituencies (91+96+115) which went to polls in the first three phases, the BJP won 136 seats and its allies 26, to total 162, against 140 of the Opposition parties, taking a lead of 22 seats.
In the first round, the BJP won 31 and its allies 10 seats.
In second phase, the BJP won 38 seats while its allies bagged 10 seats.
The BJP won a maximum number of 67 seats in the third round, with the NDA taking the lead by winning 73 of the 115 seats that went to polls.
In these three rounds of elections, polls were held on all the seats of Andhra Pradesh (25), Assam (14), Chhattisgarh (11), Gujarat (26), Karnataka (28), Kerala (20), Tamil Nadu (38 out of 39), Telangana (17) and Uttarakhand (5).
Polling in one seat of Tamil Nadu was cancelled because of irregularities.
Besides these, the states where elections were held partially in these three phases were Jammu and Kashmir (5), Bihar (14), Maharashtra (31), Odisha (15), Uttar Pradesh (26) and West Bengal (10).
In these phases, the BJP-led alliance could not open its account in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala while it bagged four seats in Telangana. In Tamil Nadu, BJP ally AIADMK could manage to win a single seat and the BJP failed to open its account.
The DMK-led alliance swept, winning 37 of the 38 seats that went to polls.
In Andhra Pradesh, the YSRCP won 22 seats while the TDP could get only 3 seats.
Of the 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led LDF won just one (Alappuzha) -- down from eight seats in the outgoing Lok Sabha -- and that too by a slender margin. The Congress-led UDF romped home in all the others.
Out of 83 seats in these four states, the NDA could win only five seats.
The BJP, however, made a clean sweep in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah, and also in Uttarakhand.
It won nine seats each in Assam and Chhattisgarh, 25 seats in Karnataka, 25 in Maharashtra (with Shiv Sena at 9), 18 in Uttar Pradesh, 13 in Bihar (BJP winning 2, Janata Dal-United 9 and Lok Janshakti Party 2) and seven in West Bengal in the first three rounds.
The party won six seats in Odisha where it was locked in a tough battle against ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
In these rounds, the Congress won 40 of the total seats (52) it won. It won 15 seats in Kerala, nine seats in Tamil Nadu where it contested as an ally of DMK and rest in other states.
According to a detailed analysis of the poll outcome, the BJP and its allies gained momentum from the fourth round and continued till the seventh and the last round.
In last four phases, the BJP, on its own, won 167 seats and with allies, it won 193 seats. The opposition parties could only win 47 seats.
The NDA, which took a lead of 22 seats in the first three rounds, made a huge comeback in the last four rounds, setting a huge lead of 142 seats over the opposition.
In these rounds, the Congress could only get 12 seats, eight of which were in Punjab.
Among other opposition parties, the Trinamool Congress won 20 seats, the Bahujan Samaj Party six, the BJD four and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Samajwadi Party won one seat each.
The BJP and its allies made a clean sweep in Bihar and Rajasthan while the safron party on its own won 28 of the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh. It was a clean sweep for the party in Himachal Pradesh.
The BJP and Shiv Sena won 16 of the 17 seats in Maharashtra.
In Jharkhand, the BJP won 11 seats and one seat was won by its ally All Jharkhand Students Union. The JMM and the Congress won one seat each.
The BJP won 11 of the 32 seats polled in West Bengal in the last four rounds while 20 went to Trinamool while the Congress won only one seat.
Trinamool won all the nine seats that went to polls in the last phase while the BJP could not open its account.
(Brajendra Nath Singh can be reached at [email protected])
