Did BJP Candidate in Lakshadweep Receive Only 201 Votes? No, Claim Is Misleading

It was the NDA candidate who received 201 votes in the union territory and not the BJP candidate as claimed.

A post is doing the rounds on social media platforms claiming that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received only 201 votes in Lakshadweep in the recently concluded Lok Sabha Elections.

What have users said?: The posts carried a communal-charged text that said, "In Lakshadweep, where Muslims are 96%, BJP has got only 201 votes, which clearly shows that Muslims are not in favour of development. No matter how much Prime Minister Narendra Modi does for Abdul, the truth is that he will not vote."

The post had garnered over 13 thousand views on the platform. Archives of similar such claims can be accessed here and here.

Is the claim true?: The claim is misleading as the BJP did not field any candidate in the union territory. However, the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) candidate, from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), did get only 201 votes.

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What led us to the truth?: Team WebQoof checked the official website of Election Commission of India (ECI) to find out the list of candidates and the number of votes each of them receiving in this general elections.

• We found that the BJP did not field any candidates from this constituency. However, its alliance partner NCP contested the seat with its candidate named 'Yousuf TP'.

• The candidate had received 201 votes, out of which 198 were EVM votes and 3 were postal.

• It should be noted that Congress and Nationalist Congress Party - Sharadchandra Pawar (NCPSP), who were alliance partners in the INDIA bloc, fought against each other on this constituency.

• The Congress' candidate, Muhammed Hamdullah Sayeed, emerged victorious with a winning margin of 2,647 votes.

Muslim population in Lakshadweep: As per the official website of Lakshadweep, over 93 percent population in the union territory are Muslims and a majority of them belong to the Shafi School of the Sunni sect.

Conclusion: Evidently, the claim of BJP candidate receiving only 201 votes in Lakshadweep is misleading.

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