Indian General Elections
AS OF 2026-07-22 · 25 CONTESTS · general election, April–June 2024 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
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Where the chamber sits · 6.8 of 10, left to right, spread 1.4 →
Every Indian general election from the Central Legislative Assembly votes of the Raj to the Lok Sabha of 2024: the world's largest democratic exercise, with the results, the Prime Ministers and the story of each, for novices and experts alike.
Elections covered
25
1920–2024, including the Raj-era assemblies
Latest
2024
BJP · Narendra Modi
Lok Sabha seats
543
272 for a majority
2024 electorate
~970m
the largest election ever held, anywhere
The chronology
Every general election, newest first, grouped into six eras, from the limited-franchise assemblies of British India to the largest democratic exercise on earth. Click any election for the full result and the story.
The Modi era · 2014–2024
Narendra Modi's 2014 campaign delivered the first single-party majority since 1984 and reduced Congress to its lowest-ever tally; 2019 enlarged it. In 2024 the BJP fell short of a majority for the first time in a decade, governing through the NDA against a revived INDIA-bloc opposition.
BJP 240INC 99others 204
Bharatiya Janata Party 303Indian National Congress 52Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 24others 74
Bharatiya Janata Party 282Indian National Congress 44All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 37others 81
The UPA decade · 2004–2009
The 2004 upset ended 'India Shining' and brought Manmohan Singh to office at the head of the Congress-led UPA; 2009 renewed it with the best Congress result in two decades. Coalition management, the nuclear deal and rural welfare schemes defined the politics.
Indian National Congress 206Bharatiya Janata Party 116Samajwadi Party 23others 104
Indian National Congress 145Bharatiya Janata Party 138Communist Party of India (Marxist) 43others 110
Mandal, Mandir and the coalition era · 1989–1999
No single party won a majority in any of the five elections from 1989 to 1999. Caste and communal realignments — the Mandal report, the Ayodhya movement — broke the Congress system, lifted the BJP from two seats to power, and made the United Front and NDA coalitions the new normal.
Bharatiya Janata Party 182Indian National Congress 114Communist Party of India (Marxist) 33others 109
Bharatiya Janata Party 182Indian National Congress 141Communist Party of India (Marxist) 32others 109
Bharatiya Janata Party 161Indian National Congress 140Janata Dal 46others 94
Indian National Congress (Indira) 232Bharatiya Janata Party 120Janata Dal 59others 44
Indian National Congress (Indira) 197Janata Dal 143Bharatiya Janata Party 85others 30
The Congress system tested · 1967–1984
The 1967 setback, Indira Gandhi's split of Congress and her 1971 'Garibi Hatao' landslide, the Emergency and the extraordinary Janata verdict of 1977 — the first time Congress lost power — then her 1980 return and Rajiv Gandhi's 1984 sympathy wave, still the largest majority in Indian history.
Indian National Congress (Indira) 404Telugu Desam Party 30Communist Party of India (Marxist) 22others 43
Indian National Congress (Indira) 353Janata Party (Secular) 41Communist Party of India (Marxist) 37others 19
Janata Party 295Indian National Congress (R) 154Communist Party of India (Marxist) 22others 23
Indian National Congress (R) 352Communist Party of India (Marxist) 25Communist Party of India 23others 11
Indian National Congress 283Swatantra Party 44Independents 35
The Nehru era · 1951–1962
The 1951–52 general election was the largest democratic exercise the world had attempted — a mostly illiterate electorate of 173 million choosing freely. Jawaharlal Nehru's Congress won three sweeping majorities on a divided opposition, setting the template of the one-party-dominant 'Congress system'.
Indian National Congress 361Communist Party of India 29Independents 20others 13
Indian National Congress 371Independents 42Communist Party of India 27others 8
Indian National Congress 364Independents 37Communist Party of India 16others 34
Elections under the Raj · 1920–1946
The Central Legislative Assembly elections of British India were contests on a franchise so narrow that under a tenth of adults could vote, with separate communal electorates. They still mattered: the Swaraj Party's entryism, Congress boycotts and returns, and the 1945–46 results that settled the mandate for Partition and the Constituent Assembly.
INC 211AIML 73others 12
INC 57AIML 30others 15
INC 42CNP 12others 93
NP 40Independent 30others 34
SP 38NP 22others 45
SP 38ILP 27others 40
DP 48Independent 47others 9
The long arc in charts
The republic's elections since 1951–52. Hover any point for the exact figure.
Turnout, 1951–2024
The opposite arc to the West: participation has risen across seven decades, from about 45% in the first general election to a record 67.4% in 2019.
Congress and the BJP
Lok Sabha seats for the Congress family against the Jana Sangh and its successor the BJP: one dominance ends in 1989, the other begins in 2014, with 2024 the first dent in it.
Records & superlatives
Highest turnout
67.4%
2019 general election
Lowest turnout
45.4%
1957 general election
Most seats won
404
Indian National Congress (Indira), 1984
Most votes for one party
23,59,74,144
BJP, 2024
Changes of Prime Minister at the ballot box
8
of 18 general elections since 1951
Highest vote share
49.1%
Indian National Congress (Indira), 1984
How Indian general elections work
First past the post
One MP per constituency, most votes wins, inherited from Westminster and kept through every delimitation. It gave Congress decades of huge majorities on minority vote shares, and does the same for the BJP today.
An election in phases
Polling runs in stages over several weeks, seven phases in 2024, so security forces and a million-plus polling stations can be redeployed. Counting, by contrast, happens in a single day.
The Election Commission
A constitutionally independent commission runs the whole exercise, from the model code of conduct to the electronic voting machines used nationwide since 2004, the machinery that makes a 970-million-voter election possible.
Alliances decide
Since 1989 the real contest has usually been between pre-poll alliances, the BJP-led NDA against the Congress-led UPA and its successor INDIA bloc, with regional parties supplying the margins of power.