BJP MPs hold the record of highest & lowest victory margins!

Jaipur: BJP candidate CR Paatil holds the record of winning by the highest number of votes in the electoral history of the world’s largest democracy. Som Marandi of the BJP and Konthala Ramakrishna of Congress have had the good fortune of reaching Lok Sabha by winning with the least number of votes. According to the data obtained from 15 Lok Sabha elections out of the 17 general elections held in the country from 1962 to 2019, BJP candidate CR Paatil won the Navsari seat of Gujarat in the 2019 LS elections by a margin of 6.89 lakh votes. This is the biggest victory in this election. Before him, in October 2014, Pritam Munde had won with a margin of 6.96 lakh votes. But this was a byelection. The by-election was held for the Beed seat in Maharashtra after the sudden death of Pritam’s father and former Union Minister Gopinath Munde. Earlier in 2004, CPI(M)’s Anil Basu won the Arambag parliamentary seat in West Bengal by a record 5,92,502 votes.

BJP’s Som Marandi holds the record for winning by the lowest votes, i.e., by just nine votes from Bihar’s Rajmahal parliamentary constituency, in the 1998 elections. Apart from this, in the 1989 general elections, Konthala Ramakrishna of Congress also won the Anakapalle parliamentary seat of Andhra Pradesh by a margin of nine votes. In the 1996 general elections, Gaekwad Satyajit Singh Dilip Singh of Congress had the record for the second-lowest victory by just 17 votes.

CANDIDATE WON BY ONLY 181 VOTES, 10,830 VOTES CAST ON NOTA

During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, NOTA became a topic of discussion in one seat. In fact, BJP candidate BP Saroj won the Machhali Shahar seat of UP by just 181 votes, while NOTA got 10,830 votes on the same seat. BP Saroj defeated the alliance’s BSP candidate, Tribhuvan Ram.

GAYATRI DEVI WAS THE QUEEN OF DEMOCRACY

In the 1962 general elections, Gayatri Devi of the Swatantra Party clinched victory in Jaipur, Rajasthan, with a staggering margin of 1,57,692 votes, while Rishang, a socialist candidate, secured the slimmest victory margin of 42 votes, representing Outer Manipur in Manipur. Independent candidate Karan Singh, hailing from the royal family of Rajasthan, swept the 1967 elections with a resounding lead of 1,93,816 votes, emerging as the MP from Bikaner, Rajasthan. Meanwhile, M Ram of Congress secured victory in Karnal, Haryana, by a mere 203 votes. MS Sanjeevi Rao of Congress secured a landslide victory in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, in 1971 with a margin of 2,92,926 votes, narrowly clinching victory with a margin of 26 votes in the same election. In 1977, Ram Vilas Paswan of the Bharatiya Lok Dal triumphed in Hajipur, Bihar, with an impressive lead of 4,24,545 votes. Desai Djiba Balwantrao of the Peasant and Workers Party won by a narrow margin of 165 votes in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Maharaja Martand Singh secured the highest number of votes in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, in 1980, contesting as an independent candidate, with a lead of 2,38,351 votes. Ramayan Rai of Congress (I) emerged victorious in Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, by a slim margin of 77 votes.

RAJIV GANDHI MADE A RECORD IN THE 1984 ELECTIONS

Former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi won the 1984 elections from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh on a Congress ticket by a maximum of 3,14,878 votes, while Shiromani Akali Dal’s Mewa Singh won from Ludhiana in Punjab by a margin of just 140 votes. In 1989, Ram Vilas Paswan, who contested from Hajipur in Bihar, won by a maximum of 5,04,448 votes, whereas in this election, Congress’s Konthala Ramakrishna won by a minimum margin of nine votes from Anakapalle in Andhra Pradesh. In the 1991 elections, Congress’s Santosh Mohan Dev holds the record for winning the maximum number of votes from the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat in Tripura by 4,28,984 votes, whereas Ram Awadh on the Janata Dal ticket won from Akbarpur in Uttar Pradesh by the least number of 156 votes.

DILIP SINGH REACHED LS IN 1996 BY WINNING BY ONLY 17 VOTES

In 1996, DMK’s Somu NVN won from Madras East in Tamil Nadu by the highest margin of 3,89,617 votes, while in the same election, Congress’s Gaekwad Satyajit Singh Dilip Singh reached the Lok Sabha by winning from Vadodara in Gujarat by the lowest margin of 17 votes. The credit for winning by the highest and smallest margins in the 1989 general elections goes to BJP candidates. BJP’s Dr Kathiriya Vallabhbhai Ramjibhai won the 1998 general election from Rajkot in Gujarat by 3,54,187 votes, while BJP’s Som Marandi won from Rajmahal in Bihar by only nine votes. The credit for winning by third largest margin goes to Lok Janshakti Party, which is registered in the name of Ram Vilas Paswan. He won the 1989 parliamentary elections as a Janata Dal candidate from Hajipur in Bihar by 5,44,048 votes. MS Sivasamy of DMK is the MP who won with the third lowest margin. He won 1971 LS polls from Triruchendur in Tamil Nadu by only 26 votes.