Lok Sabha 2019: India reposes faith in Narendra Modi as BJP crosses 300

The BJP achieved the target its most hopeful supporters had set during the long and bitter 2019 campaign, borrowing a slogan first used before the 2017 Uttar Pradesh election: “Ab Ki Baar, teen sau paar” (this time, more than 300). By midnight on Thursday the party had won or was leading in 303 of the 542 seats that went to the polls, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had returned to power for a second term.

Why the BJP won

The BJP raised its vote share to 37%, higher than in 2014, and dominated large parts of north, central, west and east India. It was the first time since 1971 that a sitting Prime Minister was re-elected with a full majority. The campaign was effectively presidential: Modi told voters that a vote for the lotus was a vote for him, and from a rally in Meerut on March 28 he went on to address 142 rallies. The party also stressed welfare for the poor, worked closely with the Sangh Parivar, and took a clear Hindutva line, while Amit Shah ran a strong organisation.

Repeating its 2014 sweep, the NDA again took every seat in Gujarat (26), Rajasthan (25), Delhi (seven), Himachal Pradesh (five) and Uttarakhand (five). It took 10 of 11 in Haryana, 28 of 29 in Madhya Pradesh, nine of 11 in Chhattisgarh and, with the Janata Dal (United), 39 of 40 in Bihar. It won 61 of 80 in Uttar Pradesh despite the SP-BSP alliance, rose from two seats to 18 in West Bengal, and from one to eight in Odisha.

The Opposition’s defeat

The Congress was reduced to 52 seats, only eight more than in 2014, and Rahul Gandhi lost Amethi to Smriti Irani, though he won Wayanad. Despite winning Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh the previous year, the party won only three of the 53 Lok Sabha seats in those states, and none in Gujarat. Its gains came mainly in Punjab, where Amarinder Singh delivered eight seats, Tamil Nadu (eight with the DMK), Kerala (15 of 20) and Telangana (three). The SP-BSP-RLD alliance won only 18 of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Trinamool Congress won 22 in West Bengal, and Lalu Prasad’s RJD drew a blank in Bihar.

In the south, regional parties held firm. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress Party swept the Andhra Pradesh Assembly election and won all 25 Lok Sabha seats, while the DMK went from no seats in 2014 to 23, and 33 with allies, marking M K Stalin’s arrival as a leader in his own right. Analysts said the economy would be Modi’s biggest challenge; Devesh Kapur of Johns Hopkins University warned that reviving growth would require urgently fixing the balance sheets of banks and NBFCs.

What happened next

Final results gave the BJP 303 of 543 seats and the Congress 52, and Modi was sworn in for his second term on 30 May 2019. In Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Congress Party won 151 Assembly seats and Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy became Chief Minister. In the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election, the Trinamool Congress won 215 seats to the BJP’s 77 and Mamata Banerjee remained Chief Minister.

See also: Lok Sabha members

Originally published on 24 May 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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