Lok Sabha 2024: How BJP, Congress and other parties have performed in states with largest economies in India

The tallies for each constituency are in, and the arithmetic for the next government is being worked out. If the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manages to hold onto their alliances, the stage will be set for Modi 3.0. However, if the Congress-led INDIA bloc somehow lures major parties like JD(U) and TDP, they might have a chance, though it is a long shot at the moment.

However, with the results out for all 543 constituencies, much has been revealed about the general attitude of the country’s voters. For instance, despite the almost-unshakable belief that the BJP will sweep almost all 80 Uttar Pradesh seats — especially after the Ram Mandir inauguration — the party shockingly only managed to win only 33.

Some experts speculate that this outcome came from the party failing to address core issues such as employment and economic anxiety, and instead choosing to focus on religious divide to win ballots.

Expert institutions, such as Bernstein and Citi Research, have now noted that new spendings may now thus become focused on the poor, women, farmers and rural areas, especially considering how rapidly BJP’s vote share has dropped in the rural seats. For context, rural constituencies make up 60% of the total constituencies in India, according to The Economic Times.

However, this is not to say that the party has clear favourites among the more developed and richer states either. Many of the richest Indian states have expressed mixed to lukewarm reactions towards BJP this election cycle, and even delivered unexpected shockers. For instance, the NDA lost a lot of ground in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan — some states with the biggest economies in the country.

As for the current scenario, the party favourite remains mixed. Considering that the country has delayed the National Survey by four years, we have to rely on independent sources to come up with more current state-wide economic statistics. Therefore, as per the India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra), Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat formed the five largest state economies in India in the 2023 Financial Year. Let’s take a look at how India’s wealthiest states voted in Lok Sabha 2024.
Karnataka
Despite struggles with making headway in the South, the BJP had made a clean sweep in Karnataka, bagging 25 seats in the 2019 general elections. While the BJP-JD(S) alliance has managed to retain a majority in the southern state with 17 seats, Congress made an impressive comeback this year, winning 9 seats compared to the 1 in the last election cycle. JD(S) managed to capture the remaining two seats.

As for the four Bengaluru constituencies, BJP managed to cling onto all of them as well, with Tejasvi Surya in Bengaluru South, Shobha Karandlaje in Bengaluru North, P. C. Mohan in Bengaluru Central and C. N. Manjunath in Bengaluru Rural.
Uttar Pradesh
As mentioned earlier, the biggest controversies came out of Uttar Pradesh. Housing prominent figures such as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the state has been widely considered as a stronghold for the saffron party, who had won a whopping 62 seats in 2019. However, resident voters were determined to take to the booths to voice their dissent this year.

Of the 80 UP constituencies — by far the state with the largest number of seats — 37 were won by the Samajwadi Party. Meanwhile, the BJP held onto 33 seats, and the INC 6.

The difference is stark: BJP lost 27 of the seats it won in the previous election cycle. Many prominent figures were dethroned this year, including Smriti Irani in Amethi, Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra in Kheri and Maneka Gandhi in Sultanpur.

However, perhaps the biggest shocker came from the fact that the BJP also lost the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, which housed the contentious Ram Temple. Awadesh Prasad of the Samajwadi Party will be chairing the constituency for the next five years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, contested for the Varanasi seat, beating INC’s Ajay Rai by a margin of 2.5 lakh votes.
Maharashtra
Another of the biggest losses for the BJP also saw a resurgence for Congress in the state with the highest GDP. While the NDA had clinched 41 out of the 48 seats in the previous 2019 elections, it managed to bag a paltry 9 this time around.

While this is a monumental loss for the ruling party, they managed to hold firmly onto most of the coastal Konkan belt. Headed by the Mahayuti alliance, the BJP won 7 of the 12 coastal seats, including in Palghar, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg and Mumbai North.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena (UBT) maintained its hold on half of the six Mumbai constituencies. Of the four Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) seats, NCP (SP) won Bhiwandi, Shinde-led Shiv Sena won Thane and Kalyan and BJP won Palghar.
Tamil Nadu
Of all the economic powerhouses, Tamil Nadu was the only state untouched by the BJP this year. Out of the 39 seats in the state, the MK Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) came out victorious in 22, the INC won 9, while a coalition of other parties bagged the remaining seats.

This was a massive win for the DMK, especially considering the two major opposition parties, the AIADMK and BJP, had come together to contest this year. Considered by many as BJP's most promising candidate, K Annamalai, too lost to DMK’s Ganapathi P Rajkumar in Coimbatore.
Gujarat
While most of the other states endured major plot-twists, the story has remained almost the same for Narendra Modi’s home state, Gujarat. As per final polls, the BJP won 25 of the total 26 seats in the state, falling short of a full clean sweep due to INC clutching the final one.

However, the INC win in the Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat was no small victory, considering this was the first time in a decade that the party had made ground in the western state.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Amit Shah contested and won from state capital Gandhinagar by a massive margin of nearly 7.5 lakh votes.