New Delhi: The results of the 18th Lok Sabha elections on Tuesday, June 4 produced one of the most interesting results and if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) comes to power, in that case Narendra Modi will be the first Prime Minister after Jawaharlal Nehru to win three straight terms.
A third term for PM Modi appears certain with the NDA hovering around the 300 mark, 28 more seats than the required mandate to stake majority. But the day belonged to the resurgent Opposition, i.e. INDIA bloc which performed way over the modest expectations raised by Exit Polls.
Between all this, PM Modi, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi emerged as the biggest winners while BJP's Smriti Irani, National Conference Omar Abdullah emerged as the biggest losers.
Here is the list of five biggest winners:
- PM Narendra Modi (Varanasi)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won the Varanasi seat for a third consecutive time as per the results for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections against Congress's Ajay Rai. Modi won the seat with 6,12,970 votes (54.24%) while Rai got 4,60,457 votes (40.74%). However, this success came along with a little bitterness as Modi's share dropped by around 9 percentage vis-a-vis 2019.
Varanasi is one of the most high-profile constituencies among the 543 Lok Sabha seats in India as it is represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The constituency has been a saffron party's stronghold since 1991 and PM Modi has represented the seat since 2014. PM Modi won the seat by a massive margin of 479,505 votes in the Lok Sabha elections 2019, defeating Shalini Yadav of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Ajai Rai - who came third. In 2014, the Prime Minister defeated Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by 371,784 votes.
- Home Minister Amit Shah (Gandhinagar)
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has secured a landslide victory in the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat after he gained an unassailable lead of over seven lakh votes against his nearest Congress rival Sonal Ramanbhai Patel. As per latest Election Commission data, Shah got 10,10,972 votes in total, while Patel received 2,66,256 votes. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Amit Shah won this seat by more than 5.57 lakh votes, defeating Congress's Chatursinh Javanji Chavda.
The BJP won the Gandhinagar seat for the first time in 1989 and has been ruling the seat since then. It has been represented by prominent political figures such as former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and former Deputy PM LK Advani.
- Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (Lucknow)
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh won from the Lucknow constituency in Uttar Pradesh by over 1.35 lakh votes defeating his nearest rival Ravidas Mehrotra of the Samajwadi Party. Singh polled 612709 votes, while Mehrotra got 477550 votes. The margin stood at 135159 votes. In the 2019 elections, Singh defeated SP candidate Poonam Sinha, the wife of Shatrughan Sinha, by a margin of almost 3.5 lakh votes. Back in 2014 elections, Singh won with a huge margin of 2,72,749 votes by defeating Congress's Rita Bahuguna.
However, Bahuguna left Congress in October 2016 and joined BJP. In 2019, NDA won 64 Lok Sabha seats in UP with BJP’s tally alone being 62 and the BJP-led alliance winning 39 in Bihar. This Lok Sabha seat has been a BJP bastion since 1991, having been represented by Atal Bihari Vajpayee five times.
- Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi (Wayanad and Rae Bareli)
Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi won the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala with a margin of over 3.5 lakh votes against CPI's Annie Raja who is a part of INDIA alliance. Gandhi got 6,47,445 votes which was lower than the 7,06,367 votes he got in 2019 from the same constituency.
This time he won by a margin of 3,64,422 votes against his nearest rival, CPI's Annie Raja who got 2,83,023 votes. In 2019, Rahul bagged 7,06, 367 votes while his main rival PP Suneer of the CPI managed to get 2,74,597 votes. Similarly, in the traditional Congress bastion of Rae Bareli, Rahul Gandhi beat the BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh, again by a huge margin of 3,89,341 votes.
Bahujan Samaj Party's (BSP) Thakur Prasad Yadav finished third by securing just 21,588 votes. This is not Rahul Gandhi’s first stint at running from two Lok Sabha seats. Back in 2019, he faced a tough battle in Amethi, losing to Union minister and senior BJP leader Smriti Irani in Amethi. In 2019, Rahul Gandhi received a shocking defeat in Amethi Constituency by Smriti Irani but had won by a massive margin of 4,31,770 votes in the Wayanad constituency.
The polls also resulted in Wayanad getting national media attention with BJP accusing Gandhi for contesting in the minority dominated constituency. Rahul bagged 7,06, 367 votes while his main rival PP Suneer of the CPI managed to get 2,74,597 votes. Considered the safest of all seats for Congress, Rae Bareli is also the family bastion for the oldest political party in India.
This seat was held by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who won the Lok Sabha polls back to back in 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2019. In this 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi contested against BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh in Raebareli.
- Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj)
Samajwadi Party under the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav emerged as the dominant force in Uttar Pradesh, which is likely to haunt the saffron party for the times ahead. SP has secured a total of 37 seats out of a total of 80 seats. Akhilesh Yadav himself achieved a notable victory in Kannuj against Subrat Pathak of the BJP with a decisive margin of 1,70,922 votes. Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency has been a traditional SP seat for decades.
In the year 1967, Ram Manohar Lohia won the election as a Samyukta Socialist Party candidate, following which Janata Party held the seat twice. The seat then went to the SP and became their traditional seat due to charismatic strategy of Akhilesh’s father and former UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Here is the list of five biggest losers:
- BJP's Smriti Irani (Amethi)
Smriti Irani, Union Minister for Women and Child Development, who defeated Rahul Gandhi in 2019, has lost in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi constituency against Congress' Kishori Lal by a margin of 1,67,196 votes. According to the Election Commission data, Congress's Sharma won by a margin of over 1,67,000 votes while Irani received 3,72,032 votes. Amethi, established as a constituency in 1967, had long been a stronghold of the Congress, represented by key figures of the Nehru-Gandhi family, including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi, and Rajiv Gandhi. The Gandhi family legacy in Amethi was broken by Irani after she defeated Rahul Gandhi, marking a significant shift in the constituency's political landscape back in 2019. She had won with a margin of 55,120 votes in the 2019 election, with a vote share of 49.69%. In 2014, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had won his third term as Member of Parliament with a total of 6,44,822 votes and a vote share of 46.72%.
- Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and NC leader Omar Abdullah (Baramulla)
Former Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah lost the battle against jailed Independent Sheikh Abdul Rashid, popularly known as Engineer Rashid from the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency. Engineer Rashid defeated junior Abdullah by a margin of 2,04,142 votes. While Rashid garnered 4,72,481 votes, Abdullah was polled 2,68,339 votes.
Sajjad Gani Lone ended up as second runner up with 1,73,239 total votes polled. In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) leader Mohammad Akbar Lone defeated Jammu and Kashmir People's Conference Raja Aijaz Ali by a margin of 30,233 votes. Lone was polled 133,426 votes with a vote share of 29.00 per cent, while Ali got 103,193 votes with 22.63 per cent vote share.
- PDP Supremo Mehbooba Mufti (Anantnag-Rajouri)
Former Chief Minister of Jammu Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti conceded defeat in the Anantnag-Rajouri constituency against National Conference's Mian Altaf Ahmad. Mian Altaf polled 521836 votes while Mufti got 240042 votes.
- BJP candidate Madhavi Latha (Hyderabad)
Asaduddin Owaisi retained the Hyderabad Lok Sabha Seat with a margin of over 3.3 lakh votes against his nearest rival, BJP's controversial new entrant Madhavi Latha, who stood second, in the constituency dominated by AIMIM since decades. Owaisi secured 6,61,981 votes against Madhavi Latha’s 3,23,894. To challenge the bastion dominated by Owaisi's in the predominantly Muslim constituency, the saffron party fielded Madhavi Lata. She has landed in controversies several times including when she directed an imaginary arrow at a mosque in the city and lately when she was seen in a video requesting Muslim women voters to remove their burkas and verify their identities against their voter ID card and was later booked.
- NCP candidate Sunetra Pawar (Baramati)
Sunetra Pawar, wife of NCP's Ajit Pawar who broke the party last year, lost to Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule by a margin of over 1.5 lakhs. Pawar received 5.73 lakhs votes while Sule got 7.3 lakhs. In 2019, Sule defeated Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kanchan Rahul Kul with a vote margin of 11.94%. She secured 52.63% of the vote share, while Kul received 40.69%. This election was significant as it marks the first time with Sharad Pawar facing a direct challenge from within his family. It was for the first time that two members of the Pawar family contested an election against each other.
