The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is all set for a third term, securing 294 seats in the Lok Sabha across the country. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces a significant hurdle as it fell short of an absolute majority with just 240 seats. To secure the 272 seats required to form the government, the BJP is heavily dependent on its allies like the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)).

Meanwhile, the opposition alliance INDIA, consisting of Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), won a total of 232 seats.

The Congress made a remarkable comeback with 99 seats and the SP delivered an impressive performance, increasing its seat tally in Uttar Pradesh (UP) from 5 to 37. The TMC won 29 seats in West Bengal while the DMK led in 22 constituencies in Tamil Nadu. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Sharad Pawar secured 8 seats and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena won 9 seats in Maharashtra.

In Bihar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was ahead in four constituencies, and both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) were ahead in three constituencies each. Despite expected gains in the south, the BJP failed to win a single seat in Tamil Nadu, but made notable progress by opening its seat in Kerala and doubling its seats in Telangana from 4 to 8.

The BJP-led NDA's 294 seats outpaced the opposition's 232, but the BJP's dominance in Uttar Pradesh faced stiff competition from the INDIA bloc. Predictions had favoured a third term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but the INDIA bloc posed a strong challenge and exceeded all expectations.

Prime Minister Modi led the BJP's election campaign, attending over 200 public meetings, rallies and roadshows. The INDIA bloc's election campaign included joint rallies of opposition leaders. The counting of votes began at 8 am and began with postal ballots before votes were cast using electronic voting machines (EVMs). This election was the second longest since India's first election in 1951-52. A majority of 272 seats was required to form a government.

Prominent defeats of the BJP

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP suffered notable defeats, including high-profile losses like that of Smriti Irani in Amethi, who was defeated by Congress candidate Kishori Lal Sharma by 167,196 votes, ending BJP's brief dominance in the constituency. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Mishra Teni lost to SP's Utkarsh Verma by over 34,329 votes in Kheri. Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda was defeated by Congress' Kalicharan Munda by 149,675 votes in Jharkhand's Khunti constituency.

In Barmer constituency in Rajasthan, Kailash Choudhary, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare, came third, trailing Ummeda Ram Beniwal of the Congress by 417,943 votes. In Thiruvananthapuram constituency in Kerala, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar lost to Shashi Tharoor of the Congress by over 16,077 votes. V Muraleedharan of the BJP lost to Adoor Prakash of the INC by 16,272 votes in Attingal constituency in Kerala.

Other BJP casualties included Union ministers Mahendra Nath Pandey, Kaushal Kishore, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Sanjeev Balyan, Rao Saheb Danve, RK Singh, V Muraleedharan, L Murugan, Subhas Sarkar and Nishith Pramanik.

Mahendra Nath Pandey of BJP lost to Birendra Singh in Chandauli, UP by 21,565 votes. Kaushal Kishore of BJP lost to RK Chaudhary of SP in Mohanlalganj by 70,292 votes. Niranjan Jyoti of BJP lost to Naresh Chandra Uttam Patel of SP in Fatehpur in UP by 33,199 votes. Sanjeev Balyan of BJP lost to Harendra Singh Malik of SP in Muzaffarnagar by 24,672 votes.

Danve Raosaheb Dadarao of the BJP lost his Jalna seat in Maharashtra to Kalyan Vaijnathrao Kale of the Congress by 109,958 votes. RK Singh of the BJP lost in Arrah (Bihar) to Sudama Prasad of the CPI(M) by 59,808 votes.

BJP's Murugan L lost to DMK's Raja A in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu by 240,585 votes. BJP's Nisith Pramanik lost his Cooch Behar seat in West Bengal to TMC's Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia by 39,250 votes. BJP's Subhas Sarkar lost to TMC's Arup Chakraborty in Bankura, West Bengal by 32,778 votes.