Indian general election, 2014

Indian general election, 2014

← 2009 7 April to 12 May 2014 2019 →
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543 seats in the Lok Sabha 272 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	66.3%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Narendra Modi Manmohan Singh J. Jayalalithaa Party BJP INC AIADMK Alliance NDA UPA Leader since 10 June 2013 May 2004 1989 Leader's seat Varanasi Vadodara (Vacated) Assam (Rajya Sabha) Did not contest Last election 116 206 9 Seats won 282 44 37 Seat change 166 162 28 Popular vote 171,660,230 106,935,942 18,111,579 Percentage 31.34% 19.52% 3.27% Swing 12.5% 9.03% 1.60%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Mamata Banerjee Naveen Patnaik Uddhav Thackeray Party Trinamool Congress BJD Shiv Sena Alliance NDA Leader since 1998 2000 2013 Leader's seat Did not contest Did not contest Did not contest Last election 19 14 11 Seats won 34 20 18 Seat change 15 6 7 Popular vote 20,378,052 9,489,946 10,050,652 Percentage 3.84% 1.71% 1.85% Swing 0.64% 0.22% 0.40%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader N. Chandrababu Naidu K. Chandrashekhar Rao Prakash Karat Party TDP TRS CPI(M) Alliance NDA Leader since 1995 2001 2005 Leader's seat Did not contest Medak (Vacated) Did not contest Last election 6 2 16 Seats won 16 11 9 Seat change 10 9 7 Popular vote 14,099,230 6,736,270 17,986,773 Percentage 2.55% 1.60% 3.25% Swing 0.04% 0.98% 2.08%
Results of the national and regional parties by alliances
Prime Minister before election Manmohan Singh INC Subsequent Prime Minister Narendra Modi BJP

Manmohan Singh
INC

Narendra Modi
BJP

The Indian general election of 2014 was held to constitute the 16th Lok Sabha, electing members of parliament for all 543 parliamentary constituencies of India. Running in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014, it was the longest election in the country's history. According to the Election Commission of India, 814.5 million people were eligible to vote, with an increase of 100 million voters since the last general election in 2009, making it the largest-ever election in the world. Around 23.1 million or 2.7% of the total eligible voters were aged 18–19 years. A total of 8,251 candidates contested for the 543 Lok Sabha seats. The average election turnout over all nine phases was around 66.38%, the highest ever in the history of Indian general elections.

The results were declared on 16 May 2014, fifteen days before the 15th Lok Sabha completed its constitutional mandate on 31 May 2014. The counting exercise was held at 989 counting centres. The National Democratic Alliance won a sweeping victory, taking 336 seats. The BJP itself won 31.0% of all votes and 282 (51.9%) of all seats, while NDA's combined vote share was 38.5%. BJP and its allies won the right to form the largest majority government since the 1984 general election, and it was the first time since that election that a party has won enough seats to govern without the support of other parties. The United Progressive Alliance, led by the Indian National Congress, won 58 seats, 44 (8.1%) of which were won by the Congress, that won 19.3% of all votes. It was the Congress party's worst defeat in a general election. In order to become the official opposition party in India, a party must gain 10% of the seats (54 seats) in the Lok Sabha; however, the Indian National Congress was unable to attain this number. Due to this fact, India remains without an official opposition party.