Cause, never in the past 18 years have elections presented a picture similar to what we are seeing right now! Never in the past 18 years have the Congress won these many seats, nor has the BJP lost so many!
A detailed account of how many of the LS seats were won, by which party can be seen in the following table:
Party | Seats Won |
BJP | 116 |
INC or Congress | 206 |
J.D (Secular) | 3 |
DMK | 18 |
NCP | 9 |
LEFT | 20 |
AIADMK | 9 |
JDU | 20 |
SP | 22 |
TC | 19 |
BSP | 21 |
KECM | 0 |
AGP | 1 |
MUL | 0 |
JKNC | 0 |
AUDF | 1 |
IND | 8 |
BJD | 11 |
RJD | 4 |
SS | 11 |
Others | 55 |
Of course, as can be seen from the table above, none of the parties in a country as huge as ours, has been able to garner simple majority i.e. none of them could win 271 seats in the Lok Sabha!
But then who cares! These are the times of coalition politics and what matters is not Congress or BJP, what matters is the Congress+ and the BJP+
According to the pre-poll alliances, the following table is achieved:
Pre - Poll Alliance | Seats won |
UPA | 261 |
NDA | 159 |
Third Front | 69 |
Fourth Front | 27 |
Others | 30 |
Of course, with the polls now over, the picture will change! A lot of parties from one front will jump to another! Coalition Politics, after all, is a circus and the Lok Sabha are Trapeze Platforms, where political leaders jump from one swing to another, waiting to be held by another of those jokers on some other swing!
Dr. Manmohan Singh, if there are no surprises in store, Politically Screwed will be eyeing you very closely!