New Delhi:
The vote share for Congress slumped below 20 per cent for the first time in the history of the country's Lok Sabha elections triggering an unprecedented debacle while it crossed 30 per cent for the BJP to record a new high.
A nine per cent decline in the Congress' vote share to 19.3 per cent in the just concluded elections for the 16th Lok Sabha from its showing in the 2009 polls saw the party lose 162 seats to get only 44, according to an analysis of results for the 16th Lok Sabha elections.
For the BJP which scored a simple majority on its own with 282 seats, the vote share was 31 per cent, 12 per cent more than the previous polls which helped it get an extra 166 seats in an emphatic victory on the back of Narendra Modi wave.
The Congress also had the ignominy of not bagging even one seat in 10 states. They were Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Delhi, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkand.
The election results also saw prominent regional parties like Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Jammu and Kashmir National Conference(NC) completely wiped out. BSP, DMK and NC had 21 seats, 18 seats and 4 seats respectively in the 15th Lok Sabha.
Rashtriya Lok Dal, All India Forward Bloc, Asom Gana Parishad, Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Bahujan Vikas Aaghadi, Bodoland People's Front, Haryana Janhit Congress, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi also failed to open their account.
There were also new entrants to 16th Lok Sabha like Aam Aadmi Party(AAP)-4, Apna Dal-2 and All India N R Congress-1.
AIADMK, which had nine MPs in the outgoing Lok Sabha, could increase its tally to an impressive 37 this time.
Similarly, Trinamool Congress and Biju Janata Dal, which had 19 and 14 MPs respectively, have increased their numbers to 34 and 20, respectively.
Shiv Sena, which is a constituent of BJP-led NDA, had won 11 seats and in 2014 elections the number has gone up to 18. TDP had six seats in 15th Lok Sabha and their number rose to 16 in this year's tally.