The Election Commission of India has announced the results for all 543 Lok Sabha seats that were contested between April 19 and June 1. The Congress party has won 99 seats, while the BJP has secured 240 seats, falling short of the 272 needed for a majority.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is poised to return for a third term at the Centre, but his BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) did not meet expectations due to an unexpectedly strong performance by the Opposition INDIA bloc.

The BJP encountered setbacks in its traditional strongholds, resulting in lower tallies in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, while its efforts in the south brought only marginal gains. Its ambitions to expand in West Bengal were also thwarted. However, the party’s strategy in Odisha succeeded, as it rose to power for the first time and secured victories in 19 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats.

The Congress’s unprecedented outreach to OBC voters, in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, proved highly successful in Uttar Pradesh. The alliance won 44 seats, reducing the BJP’s count to 35 from its previous 62 seats in 2019 in this key battleground state. However, in Bihar, the Congress-RJD alliance, despite a similar strategy, failed to excite the voters, allowing the NDA alliance to maintain its position.

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Return of coalition politics in lok sabha

Tuesday’s results have decisively reestablished coalitions at the heart of national politics after a decade, and have strengthened the opposition in Parliament. For the first time since 2014, the Congress is now entitled to the official Leader of the Opposition post, which carries Cabinet rank.

The verdict suggests that the BJP, despite having the largest number of seats within the NDA, will need to adopt a more consensual approach, as the numbers secured by its allies are crucial for the alliance to surpass the halfway mark in the Lok Sabha. An NDA meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, with the two largest allies, TDP and JD(U), confirming their attendance.

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