The 2024 Lok Sabha elections will begin on April 19 with 102 constituencies going to polls in the first phase. These constituencies are spread over 21 states and union territories. Most of these (39) are in Tamil Nadu. Twelve are in Rajasthan, eight in Uttar Pradesh, six in Madhya Pradesh, and five each in Assam, Uttarakhand, and Maharashtra.
Of these 102 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party bagged 40 in the 2019 polls, followed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam at 24, and the Indian National Congress at 15.
The victory margins in these seats were widely skewed in the last Lok Sabha elections. Twenty-seven had victory margins below 10 per cent, 26 were won by margins between 10 and 20 per cent, and 29 seats saw margins between 20 and 30 per cent. Only 15 seats had victory margins between 30 and 40 per cent, and five seats, above 40 per cent.
CLEAN SWEEPS
The five seats that saw clean sweeps in the last general election were in Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, and Arunachal Pradesh. P Velusamy of the DMK won the Dindigul seat of Tamil Nadu with a massive margin of 5.4 lakh votes, a victory margin of 46.5 per cent against the Pattali Makkal Katchi party’s K Jothimuthu.
Dr Kalanidhi Veeraswamy of the DMK had won the Chennai North seat by 4.6 lakh or 48.3 per cent votes, followed by Congress’ Su Thirunavukkarasar, who swept Tiruchirapalli seat with a margin of 4.6 lakh votes or 43.8 per cent. The BJP swept Uttarakhand’s Garhwal and Arunachal Pradesh’s Arunachal West seats with 40.8 and 48.8 per cent victory margins respectively.
CLOSE CONTESTS
Eight seats had victory margins of less than two per cent in the last Lok Sabha elections. Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu’s Vellore and Chidambaram seats, and Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar saw very tough fights.
The Nationalist Congress Party’s Mohammed Faizal had defeated the Congress party’s Hamdullah Sayeed by only 823 votes or a 1.8 per cent margin. In another close contest, Kuldeep Rai Sharma of the Congress defeated Vishal Jolly of the BJP by 1,407 votes or a 0.7 per cent margin in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Other close victories included the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi party’s Thirumaavalavan Thol, who stood victorious against the DMK’s P Chandrasekar by only 3,219 votes or a 0.3 per cent margin in Tamil Nadu’s Chidambaram.
Several high-profile candidates are contesting in the first phase of the elections. Kiren Rijiju will contest from Arunachal West, Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur, Karti P Chidambaram from Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu, Nakul Kamal Nath from Chhindwara, and Chirag Paswan from Bihar’s Hajipur seat.
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