 "LS candidates in the fray: Tamil Nadu and Gujarat at opposite ends")
Tamil Nadu, which polled in the first phase of the Lok Sabha polls on April 19, saw the sharpest increase in total number of contestants on its 39 seats, from 850 candidates in 2019 to 950 in 2024. Gujarat, scheduled for polling in the third phase on May 7, and where the nomination process is complete, has witnessed the steepest decline in the number of contestants in the fray for its 26 seats, from 371 five years ago to 266 in 2024.
In Gujarat, the result has already been declared for the Surat Lok Sabha seat, where nominations of 12 candidates were rejected, including that of the Congress’ candidate, because of discrepancies. Apart from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Mukesh Dalal, eight others, whose nominations were accepted, withdrew from the contest. As a result, the EC announced Dalal as elected unopposed. Hence, Gujarat, on the rest of its 25 seats has 265 candidates. It is the least number of candidates in the fray that the state has witnessed since 2004 when 162 candidates contested on its 26 seats. The number of candidates contesting in Gujarat was 359 in 2009, it dropped to 334 in 2014, and then increased to 371 in 2019.
However, Gujarat isn’t the only state to see a decline in the number of contestants in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. For example, in Kerala, the number of candidates contesting its 20 seats is 194. It is the lowest for the southern state since 2004, when 177 candidates were in the fray. In 2009, 217 candidates were battling for its 20 seats, which increased to 269 in 2014 and declined to 227 in 2019.
If compared with the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the number of candidates has also declined marginally in Assam, Tripura, Karnataka, Manipur, and Nagaland and UTs of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Lakshadweep. The number of candidates has substantially increased in Chhattisgarh, from 166 in 2019 to 220 in 2024; it also witnessed an uptick in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, and Puducherry.