Wednesday, March 05, 2025 | 11:44 PM ISTहिंदी में पढें
Business Standard
Notification Icon
userprofile IconSearch

Elections 2019: Why popularity is not a guarantee for winning seats

Party with fewer votes can get more seats and win elections

People wait in a queue to cast their vote during the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections, in Sultanpur | Photo: PTI
Premium

Bibhudatta Pradhan and Vrishti Beniwal | Bloomberg
In the cut-throat election contest in India, political parties are focused on turning votes into winning seats. The reason -- history shows that a party can form a government by garnering support from just a quarter of the total electorate.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and Rahul Gandhi’s main opposition Congress party are trying to raise vote shares -- the percentage of total votes polled -- in their favour as the country's election moves into its final phase.

In India's first-past-the-post system, with a large number of contenders for each seat, the winner just needs to get enough

What you get on BS Premium?

  • Unlock 30+ premium stories daily hand-picked by our editors, across devices on browser and app.
  • Pick your 5 favourite companies, get a daily email with all news updates on them.
  • Full access to our intuitive epaper - clip, save, share articles from any device; newspaper archives from 2006.
  • Preferential invites to Business Standard events.
  • Curated newsletters on markets, personal finance, policy & politics, start-ups, technology, and more.
VIEW ALL FAQs

Need More Information - write to us at assist@bsmail.in