Almost all national parties showed an improvement in the 2009 elections, barring the left front and the BJP who were down to a miserable figure of 116 seats. Here is a look at how the national parties fared in the elections of 2009:
The 2009 Lok Sabha Elections was the 14th time the country went to polls to select a new government. Defying all exit polls and Doomsayers, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance secured a thumping win in the polls by getting a comfortable majority. A major reason behind this was the Congress party, who won a whopping 206 seats on its own.
ADVERTISEMENT
While Sonia Gandhi's Congress party managed 206 seats, Advani's BJP could only manage 116.
Almost all national parties showed an improvement in the 2009 elections, barring the Left Front and the BJP who were down to a miserable figure of 116 seats. Here is a look at how the national parties fared in the elections of 2009:
Parties |
Seats Contested |
Seats Won |
Defeated |
Votes secured |
Vote Share |
Indian National Congress |
440 |
206 |
71 |
11,91,11,019 |
28.55% |
Bharatiya Janta Party |
433 |
116 |
170 |
7,84,35,381 |
18.80% |
Communist Party of India |
56 |
4 |
41 |
59,51,888 |
1.43% |
Communist Party of India (Marxist) |
82 |
16 |
29 |
2,22,19,111 |
5.33% |
Nationalist Congress Party |
68 |
9 |
42 |
85,21,502 |
2.04% |
Bahujan Samaj Party |
500 |
21 |
410 |
2,57,28,920 |
6.17% |
Rashtriya Janta Dal |
44 |
4 |
16 |
52,80,084 |
1.27% |
Table compiled from the report of the Election Commission of India report, 2009.
The UPA managed to secure support from its allies and as a result, UPA 2 was born. Unfortunately, they could not make the most of this opportunity to govern without objections from allies as their five years in power were marred by scams, policy paralysis and various cases of infighting. All this has prompted the electorate to vote in large numbers in the elections this time around. May 16, 2014 is indeed a big day!