The Hindu Business Line, July 18, 2019
Of the total 303 BJP MPs, just 79 won with less than 50 per cent of the total votes.
It was a “winner-takes-all” election this year with 63 per cent of the winning candidates, 341 out of 542 Lok Sabha poll winners, securing 50 per cent or more of the total votes polled in their constituency.
Another statistic reveals that of the total 542 winners analysed, 475 were millionaires.
An analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Thursday showed that the winners of this year’s Lok Sabha elections bagged an average of 52.7 per cent of the total votes polled, which is over five percentage points higher than in the previous general elections in 2014 when the mean votes polled by the winners was 47 per cent.
Of the total 303 BJP MPs, 79 (26 per cent) won with less than 50 per cent of the total votes polled in their constituencies. Among the 52 winners of the Congress, 34 MPs (65 per cent) of the total legislators won with less than 50 per cent of the total votes polled in their constituencies.
The voter discrimination against candidates with criminal records or millionaires was at an all-time low as 132 (57 per cent) of the total 233 winners with declared criminal cases won with a vote share of 50 per cent or more. As many as 115 winners with criminal cases defeated candidates with a clean record. In the case of candidates flush with funds, a similar pattern was seen with 313 (66 per cent) of the total 475 crorepati winners having won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above. Fifty-four of the 475 crorepati winners won against non-crorepati runners up.
Women candidates
The number of women elected to the 17th Lok Sabha was higher than in the 16th Lok Sabha. There are 78 women MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha as opposed to 62 previously.
In fact, the top three winners in the Lok Sabha polls 2019 came from Gujarat with Darshana Vikram Jardosh securing 74.47 per cent; CR Patil from Navsari securing 74.3 per cent; and Ranjanaben Bhatt from Vadodara securing 72.30 per cent of the vote share in their respective constituencies.
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