Video Editor: Kriti Saxena
Cameraperson: Shiv Kumar Maurya
With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) securing roughly around 293 seats, the focus is on the performance of the NDA and the INDIA bloc in the five southern states — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana — which account for around 130 seats in the Parliament.
The results were a mixed bag for the NDA in South India. Even though the BJP placed an unprecedented thrust on the five states with at least 25 official and non-official visits by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself between January and May 2024, the INDIA bloc outshined the NDA in Tamil Nadu again, retained most of Kerala, and upped its tally in Telangana and Karnataka
In total, while the INDIA bloc managed to win 76 seats, the NDA went from 30 seats in 2019 to 49 seats in 2024.
Kerala: BJP Scripts History, Enter Lok Sabha Via Thrissur
While the Congress-led UDF may have retained 18 out of 20 seats, it was the BJP that scripted history by winning its first-ever Lok Sabha seat from Thrissur, where actor-turned-politician Suresh Gopi had contested. The ruling CPI(M) could win only a seat.
Overall, the BJP managed to increase its vote share to nearly 17%. Read our analysis here.
Tamil Nadu: BJP Gets Zero Seats, INDIA Sweeps
Moving to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, where the fight was between the DMK-led INDIA, the BJP-led NDA and the AIADMK.
This was a state where PM Modi had invested heavy political capital, but the party became a complete cropper, winning zero seats as the DMK alliance swept all 40.
However, in a first, BJP’s vote share increased to around 11% from 3.66% in the 2019 elections. Read our analysis here.
Karnataka: INDIA Bloc Improves Tally, NDA Reduced To 19
In Karnataka, even as the BJP-JD(S) alliance emerged victorious in 19 out of 28 seats, the ruling Congress improved its tally by winning nine seats as opposed to securing just one in 2019.
The Karnataka debacle is dear for the BJP because the state has been its bastion, where it had won 25 seats in 2019. Read our analysis here.
Telangana: Congress, BJP Push BRS To Zero
In Telangana, both the BJP and Congress won eight seats each. While the BJP doubled its tally from 2019, the Congress merely had three seats in the previous elections.
The results have sounded a death knell for the BRS, which came to power after the formation of a separate Telangana in 2014 and ruled the state for a decade, until BRS supremo and then-Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was unseated by the Congress in the 2023 Assembly elections. Read our analysis here.
Andhra Pradesh: Chandrababu Naidu A Kingmaker In State & Centre
In neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the alliance between the TDP, Jana Sena, and BJP led to a landslide victory, in what is a complete reversal of the 2019 results. While the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP won 16 seats, the BJP won three out of the six seats it contested, up from a zero tally in 2019.
The Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSCRP was restricted to just 4 seats.
Naidu is clearly one of the kingmakers this election. His win is not only a major comeback for him in the state, but also at the Centre, all eyes are on him to decide whether he continues with the NDA which he rejoined ahead of the 2024 elections, six years after a bitter falling out in 2018. Read our analysis here.
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