Narendra Modi, India's sitting prime minister, led the Bharatiya Janata Party's national campaign.¹

It won 303 of the 543 seats, a majority on its own.

That was 31 seats above the 272-seat mark needed for a majority.

The Indian National Congress finished second, taking 52 seats on 19.5% of the vote.

The party's vote share — the slice of all ballots cast that went to one party or candidate — reached 37.3%, which still converted into 55.8% of the seats under India's first-past-the-post system.

In January 2019 the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party announced a joint alliance to contest 76 of Uttar Pradesh's 80 Lok Sabha seats together.²

On 16 March 2019 Narendra Modi launched 'Main Bhi Chowkidar,' adding 'Chowkidar' to his Twitter name — answering Rahul Gandhi's 'chowkidar chor hai' jibe over the Rafale fighter-jet purchase.³

On 25 March 2019 Congress president Rahul Gandhi announced the Nyuntam Aay Yojana, promising up to ₹72,000 a year to the poorest 20% of households.⁴

The two main parties then set out contrasting platforms: the BJP's manifesto promised a National Register of Citizens and doubling farmer incomes by 2022, while Congress's promised nationwide farm-loan waivers and free diagnostics, medicines and hospitalisation for every citizen.⁵

The Election Commission then ran the vote in seven phases, from 11 April to 19 May, with counting on 23 May. It cancelled polling in Vellore over cash seizures linked to DMK leaders and deferred Tripura East's vote over law-and-order concerns.¹

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam made the single biggest gain of the election, taking seats from the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

It picked up 23 of them.

The BJP's own seat total grew by 21 from the previous election, adding to the majority it already held.

186 of 543 constituencies changed hands nationwide since the last election — more than a third of the house.

Separately, the BJP's vote share moved +6.3 pp from the last election, against +0.2 pp for the INC.

Nationally, turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — rose +0.9 pp, to about 67.3%.

Machhlishahr, Uttar Pradesh saw the tightest finish of the election: the winner's margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — was 181 votes.

Navsari, Gujarat saw the widest margin of the election, with the winner finishing 52.7% of the vote ahead of the runner-up.

Turnout peaked in Dhubri, Assam, where 90.7% of registered voters cast a ballot — the highest of any seat in the country.

Malkajgiri, Telangana had the largest electorate anywhere in the country, with 31,50,313 registered voters on its rolls.

Across the country, 65,13,355 voters chose NOTA — 'None of the Above,' a ballot option letting voters formally reject every candidate on offer — 1.1% of all votes cast.

Parliament passed the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act on 2 June 2014, splitting the state and creating Telangana as India's 29th state. The 2019 vote was the first general election the two successor states contested separately.⁶

The Supreme Court also ordered wider checks on paper-trail vote slips ahead of the vote. Its 8 April 2019 ruling raised the number of polling stations checked in each assembly segment from one to five.⁷