Lok Sabha polls final result: BJP wins 240 seats, Congress 99

The Congress nearly doubled its seats tally compared to 2019 general polls.

The Bharatiya Janata Party's final seats tally for the Lok Sabha elections settled at 240, the Election Commission's data revealed early Wednesday morning.

The ruling party, which has dominated the country's politics with successive victories in general and assembly elections under Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2014, will now have to rely on the support of its NDA allies to form a government at the Centre as it fell woefully short of the majority mark of 272.

The Congress, meanwhile, showed signs of an electoral revival after being decimated in 2014 and 2019 general elections at the hands of the BJP. The party, which was written off by the poll pundits and the exit polls ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2024 results, made a strong comeback by winning 99 seats.

The Congress nearly doubled its seats tally compared to 2019 general polls. The party had won 52 seats. On the other hand, the BJP, which won 303 seats in the previous Lok Sabha polls, lost nearly 20 percent of its constituencies.

With just over 290 seats, the National Democratic Alliance has a slim majority. With over 230 seats, the INDIA bloc might make attempts to win the support of the BJP's allies like TDP and Nitish Kumar's JD(U).

BJP leaders Smriti Irani and K Annamalai, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, and Congress’s Vikramaditya Singh are among the big names who lost in 2024 polls.