Team Blitz India
The National Democratic alliance campaign to expand its footprint in the southern states met with mixed results in the 2024 Parliamentary elections.
Of the 130 seats in the fve southern States the BJP won 29 seats.
The NDA recorded a landslide in Andhra Pradesh, with BJP and its allies TDP and JNP getting most 21 of 25 seats. The YSRCP, which ruled the state, won only 4 seats and the Congress got nothing. The NDA’s push in AP is remarkable considering the fact that YSRCP won 22 of the 25 seats in the 2109 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP beneftted enormously from its alliance with TDP and JNP.
Doubling the number
In Telangana, the BJP doubled its wins by netting 8 seats compared to last election. In 2014, BJP won only one seat. While Congress too bagged 8 seats this election the BRS drew a blank.
The BJP swept the Greater Hyderabad region, leaving only Hyderabad to AIMIM.
Among the heavyweights Telangana BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar won from his seat, Karimnagar, for the second time, and Union Minister G Kishan Reddy also retained his seat, Secunderabad.
Karnataka contest
The number of seats for NDA in Karnataka went down from 25 to 19 seats in this election. The Congress grabbed the remaining 9 seats. The contest in the state was close in seven constituencies with margins less than 50,000 seats. The BJP vote share came down from 51.75% to 45.43%, while Congress vote share went up from 32.11% to 45.43%. One of the highlights of the election in the State is Hassan JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna, who is facing charges of sexually abusing several women, losing the election. Shreyas M Patel of the Congress won the seat by 42,549 votes.
Debut victory
The BJP opened its account in Kerala by recording it’s frst win in Thrissur, where actor Suresh Gopi won with a victory margin of 76,686 votes. The victory of Suresh Gopi is remarkable as he was ranged against two formidable candidates, while 39% of the electorate in the constituency comprises minority votes, 16% Christian and 23% Muslim votes. The UDF won 18 out of 20 seats.
Among the prominent candidates from the state Rahul Gandhi won from Wayanad with a victory margin of over 3.5 lakh votes. But Union Minister and BJP candidate from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency Rajeev Chandrashekhar, who was expected to perform well, lost the seat to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.
Elusive win
In Tamil Nadu the NDA could not win any seat. Its promising candidate K. Annamalai lost the Coimbatore seat. The heartening fact for BJP is that its vote share has reached the double fgures. The lone Puducherry seat went to Congress.
