New Delhi: Sweeping aside the opposition in Uttar Pradesh, holding the fort in the Indian heartland and making major gains in West Bengal along the way, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cruised to a second term on Thursday, with a record tally of 303 seats.
Decimating the opposition that was left hovering around a tally of 50, Modi became the first non-Congress full majority Prime Minister to get re-elected with a stronger majority, 48 years after Indira Gandhi pulled it off in 1971.
As the saffron wave swept across the country, 12 former chief ministers, including eight from the Congress lost their contests.
Sheila Dikshit
Three-time chief minister Sheila Dikshit lost from North East Delhi constituency by a margin of 3.63 lakh votes against Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari. Conceding defeat, Dikshit termed the loss "very disappointing" and congratulated the BJP for its spectacular performance.
Riding high on the Modi wave, the BJP made a clean sweep in the national capital winning all seven seats with massive margins as all its candidates bagged more than 50 per cent of votes, while the Congress for the first time in five years fared better than the ruling AAP which was relegated to the third spot.
Deve Gowda
In a big blow to the ruling coalition in Karnataka, JD(S) patriarch and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda was defeated in Tumkur constituency by his BJP rival by a margin of over 13,000 votes. GS Basavaraj secured 5,96,127 votes while Gowda got 582788 votes.
Pegged as a battle between the Vokkaligas and Lingayats (Basavaraju’s community), Tumakuru delivered the death knell to 87- year-old Gowda’s active political career. Gowda, the joint candidate of ruling Congress-JDS coalition, was forced to contest from Tumkur at the last minute, giving up home turf Hassan to grandson Prajwal Revanna.
Congress had ceded the Tumkur seat to JD(S) as per the seat sharing arrangement, denying ticket to sitting MP Muddahanumegowda, causing resentment within.
The humiliating defeat of the Congress-JD(S) combine in the Lok Sabha elections with the coalition partners winning a seat each has put the year-old coalition government on uncertain grounds. The BJP, in a stellar performance has won 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats here.
Digvijaya Singh
The former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh was defeated by Pragya Singh Thakur, BJP’s most controversial candidate who is on trial for alleged involvement in the 2008 Malegaon blasts. Singh lost by a huge margin of 3.6 lakh votes from Bhopal in the Lok Sabha elections.
Pragya Thakur bagged 8.6 lakh votes, while Digvijaya Singh received 5 lakh votes in the high-profile seat. Singh was reportedly averse to fighting elections from Bhopal and was keen to contest from Rajgarh, his home district, but CM Kamal Nath reportedly prevailed over the central leadership.
After 40 years, Madhya Pradesh witnessed a rerun of the post-Emergency 1977 general elections, in which the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) won 39 seats, while the Congress was reduced to just one seat - Chhindwara - in the then undivided state.
Ashok Chavan
The Congress faced one of its biggest defeats in Maharashtra’s Nanded, as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) swept the Marathwada region, with BJP’s Prataprao Chikhalikar defeating former CM Ashok Chavan by a margin of 40,010 votes. Nanded was considered Chavan’s bastion, who won the seat in 2014 by 81,455 votes.
Chikhalikar, who won the Loha Assembly seat in 2014 on a Shiv Sena ticket, was formally inducted into the BJP prior to the elections.
Sushil Kumar Shinde
Veteran Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde was defeated by seer and BJP candidate Siddeshwar Shivacharya, who established an unassailable lead of 1,58,608 votes over the 3,66,377 votes polled by Shinde in the crucial Solapaur Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra.
Shivachrahya’s win has been largely attributed to the split in the traditional Congress votes triggered by the third contestant in fray, Prakash Ambedkar, the great grandson of BR Ambedkar. Popularly known as Maharaj, the seer garnered 5,24,985 votes.
Harish Rawat
State BJP president Ajay Bhatt defeated former chief minister and Congress leader Harish Rawat by a margin of over 3 lakh votes in Nainital. Bhatt defeated Rawat by 3,39,096 votes in Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar constituency to upset the calculations of the Congress which was looking to regain lost ground after the rout of 2014 Lok Sabha and 2017 assembly polls.
Rawat had been fielded by the Congress in the hope that he would capitalise on the relative inexperience of Bhatt, a Lok Sabha poll debutant.
Mukul Sangma
Former Meghalaya chief minister and Congress candidate from Tura, Mukul Sangma was defeated by the National People's Party (NPP) candidate Agatha Sangma by a margin of over 3 lakh votes.
Bhupinder Singh Hooda
Former chief minister of Haryana and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda was defeated by BJP’s Ramesh Chander Kaushik from the Sonipat Lok Sabha constituency by a margin of 1,64,864 votes. Hooda,who was a two time chief minister of the state from 2005-2014, was a sitting MLA from Ghari Sampla Kiloi in Rohtak district and had entered the Lok Sabha competition after a gap of 14 years.
Veerappa Moily
Congress leader Veerappa Moily who was the chief minister of Karnataka between 1992 and 1994 lost in his Chikkballapur Lok Sabha constituency by 5,63,802 votes to BJP’s BN Bache Gowda.
Chikkabllapur till Thursday was a stronghold of the Congress with Veerappa Moily himself winning in the last two Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and 2014. In 2014, his win came with a narrow margin of 9,520 votes with BJP’s BN Bache Gowda closely following him. He was first elected from Karkala in Udupi district as an MLA in 1992. He won from there six consecutive times.
Mehbooba Mufti
PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti lost the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat to National Conference's Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi by nearly 10,000 votes. Her defeat has been largely attributed to backlash she faced over her “heavy-handed” measures to control the post-Burhan Wani violence during which she was in alliance with the BJP.
Masoodi, who was fighting his maiden electoral battle, polled 40,180 votes, while Mehbooba secured 30,524 votes. This is only second electoral defeat for Mufti since she joined politics in 1996. She had lost the 1999 Lok Sabha poll from Srinagar constituency to NC leader Omar Abdullah.
Babulal Marandi
Former chief minister and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) candidate Babulal Marandi was defeated by BJP's Annapurna Devi in Koderma, by a huge margin to by 4,00,162 votes. The first CM of Jharkhand, Babulal Marandi formed the JVM (P) after walking out of the BJP in 2006.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) completely decimated the four-party Mahagathbandhan in the general elections, establishing its dominance again in mineral-rich Jharkhand. Out of the 14 seats in the state, the BJP-led NDA registered victory in 12. Of these 12, 11 seats were won by the BJP and one by its ally, AJSU.
In the last Lok Sabha elections in Jharkhand, the BJP had won 12 seats and Mahagathbandhan ally JMM registered victory in two seats – Dumka and Rajmahal. However, in this election JMM supremo and sitting MP of Dumka lost its seat to the BJP’s Sunil Soren. Unlike last time, the Congress has been able to open its account in the state. Geeta Kora of Congress defeated BJP state president Laxman Giluwa.
Shibu Shoren
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president and former chief minister of the state Shibu Soren lost the Dumka (ST) seat to BJP's Sunil Soren by 47,590 votes. While Shibu Soren got 4,37,333 votes, Sunil Soren polled 4,84,923 votes, they said. The former chief minister had won the seat eight times.
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