A total of 64.2 crore voters, including 31.2 crore women, participated in the electoral process.
The counting of votes for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, conducted over seven polls from April 19 to June 1, is currently underway. As per the Election Commission, a total of 8,360 candidates had their fate sealed in EVMs across all the 543 parliamentary constituencies in the country. This time, a total of 64.2 crore voters, including 31.2 crore women, participated in the electoral process.
Let's now take a look at who secured the biggest and closest wins in the 2019 general elections in terms of votes.
Biggest margin
During the 2019 polls, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader CR Patil almost shattered the all-time record of victory margin in a parliamentary election. Back then, he defeated his Congress rival in Gujarat's Navsari seat by 6.89 lakh votes, the highest in the 17th Lok Sabha.
The vote margin was a little short of the 6.96 lakh record, which was set by Pritam Munde in October 2014 after she won the by-election in the Beed seat in Maharashtra. The by-polls were necessitated after the death of her father, former Union Minister Gopinath Munde.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Patil is eyeing another term from Navsari. He is pitted against Congress' Naishadbhai Bhupatbhai Desai. As of 2:20 PM, Patil is leading by 6.11 lakh votes from the seat and has secured 8,32,552 votes. Desai is in the second position with 2,20,661 votes.
Closest margin
The lowest margin of victory during the last general elections was a mere 181 votes. In Uttar Pradesh's Machhlishahr seat, BJP's BP Saroj (Bholanath) defeated BSP rival Tribhuvan Ram. Back then, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was contesting polls in alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party (SP).
This time, Saroj is eyeing a second consecutive term from the Machhlishahr seat and is pitted against SP's Priya Saroj. As of 2:20 PM, BJP's BP Saroj is trailing by more than 38,000 votes against the Samajwadi Party candidate.