Indian Politics
India is the world's largest democracy — close to a billion eligible voters. The lower house of its Parliament, the Lok Sabha, has 543 elected members, each chosen from a single constituency by first-past-the-post: whoever wins the most votes takes the seat, and the party or coalition commanding a majority forms the government under the Prime Minister.
Two national parties set the poles — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress — but India's politics is intensely regional, and dozens of state parties hold real power. They mostly line up behind two alliances: the BJP-led NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc (successor to the Congress-led UPA).
How the seats have voted
Each hexagon below is one of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, placed by its real geography and coloured by the party that won it. Step through the last four general elections to watch the map turn from Congress blue to BJP saffron — the Congress-led win of 2009, Narendra Modi's BJP majorities in 2014 and 2019, and the 2024 result that returned the BJP to power but without a majority of its own. Tap any hex for the constituency and who won it, or search for a seat by name.
The hexagons are equal-area, so a small urban seat counts the same as a vast rural one — as it does in Parliament. These boundaries date from the 2008 delimitation, used from the 2009 election onward, so the map covers 2009–2024; earlier elections used different constituencies and appear only in the national chart further down.
2024 general election — tap a seat for details
Each map shows the winning party in every constituency. “Alliance” recolours it by coalition — the BJP-led NDA, the Congress-led bloc (the UPA, renamed INDIA in 2024), and everyone else; alliances shift from election to election, and smaller allies are grouped under “Others”, so read it as the broad picture. “What changed” outlines the seats that flipped since the previous election. Winners are matched to constituencies by name across several open datasets, so a small number of seats (most in 2009) may show as hollow “no data” where a name couldn't be matched cleanly. Sources are listed at the foot of the page. Last reviewed June 2026.
India at the ballot box, 1962–2024
The map only reaches back to 2009, because the constituencies were last redrawn in 2008. The national picture goes back further. Each column is one general election; the stack shows how the 543 (or, in earlier years, fewer) seats split between the Congress, the BJP and its Jana Sangh forerunner, the Janata parties that twice broke Congress's grip, the Left, and the many regional and other parties. Switch to vote share to see how seats compare with the votes actually cast — first-past-the-post and a fragmented field hand the leading party far more seats than votes. The grey line is turnout. Tap a column for the numbers and who became Prime Minister.
1962–2024 · seats won — tap a column
Seats grouped into blocs: Congress; the BJP (with its predecessor the Bharatiya Jana Sangh); the Janata Party / Janata Dal; the Left (CPI, CPI(M) and allies); and all regional and other parties and independents. Totals are the results as declared; the 1951 and 1957 elections are left out because the reachable per-seat data for them is incomplete, and seat counts below 543 reflect the smaller Parliaments and uncontested or deferred seats of the time. Sources are below.
The major parties
India has hundreds of registered parties and around forty win Lok Sabha seats at any election. The sketches below cover the national poles and the larger regional forces, with a few concrete positions to make them easier to compare. They summarise stated positions and are necessarily simplified.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
The dominant party of the past decade and the party of government since 2014, led by Narendra Modi. Right-of-centre and rooted in Hindu nationalism (Hindutva), it pairs a muscular cultural-nationalist programme with market-friendly economics and large-scale welfare delivery.
- Economy: infrastructure and manufacturing push (“Make in India”, self-reliance), business-friendly reform, and direct-benefit welfare schemes (housing, cooking gas, cash transfers, digital payments).
- Nation & culture: a strong, centralised state and a Hindu-nationalist agenda — the 2019 revocation of Jammu & Kashmir's special status, the Ram temple at Ayodhya, and a push for a Uniform Civil Code.
- Security: a hard line on national security, borders and terrorism.
- Federalism: a powerful centre, which critics say comes at the states' expense.
Indian National Congress
The party of the independence movement and India's natural party of government for its first decades; now the principal national opposition and the anchor of the INDIA bloc. A broad, centrist “big tent” that stresses secularism and social welfare.
- Welfare & rights: a rights-based tradition — the rural jobs guarantee (MGNREGA), food-security and right-to-information laws — and, lately, cash transfers and expanded social spending.
- Social justice: backing for a nationwide caste census and stronger protections for lower castes, minorities and the poor.
- Secularism: defence of India's secular, pluralist constitution against majoritarian politics.
- Economy: a more redistributive, welfare-tilted version of the liberal economy it itself opened up in 1991.
The regional forces
Much of India's politics is decided in the states. Among the largest: the Trinamool Congress (West Bengal), the Dravidian rivals DMK and AIADMK (Tamil Nadu), TDP and YSRCP (Andhra Pradesh), the caste-based SP and BSP (Uttar Pradesh), RJD and JD(U) (Bihar), the BJD (Odisha), and the anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party (Delhi and Punjab). The Left, once powerful in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, now holds far fewer seats. These parties variously emphasise regional pride and language, caste and social justice, and a larger share of resources for their states.
At a glance
The two national poles on some headline questions — a simplification, and India's regional parties span the whole range between and beyond them.
| Issue | BJP | Congress |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Hindu-nationalist; cultural majority | Secular, pluralist |
| Economy | Pro-business reform + welfare delivery | Welfare-tilted, redistributive |
| Welfare | Direct benefit transfers & schemes | Rights-based guarantees (jobs, food) |
| The centre | Strong, centralising | More power to the states |
| Social policy | Uniform Civil Code; one nation | Caste census; group protections |
| Security | Hawkish on borders & terrorism | Firm, less confrontational tone |
Sources & notes
A note on how this page was made: the maps, the data behind them, and some of the drafting were put together with the help of AI tools. I've checked the headline figures against the historical record (party seat totals match the standard results) and flagged where the data is approximate, but any mistakes are mine — if you spot one, please let me know. The party descriptions are my own plain-English summary of contested politics; I've aimed to be fair rather than to take sides.
- Constituency boundaries & the 2014 result. The 543 parliamentary-constituency map and 2014 winners from DataMeet (CC-BY 4.0).
- Constituency winners, 1962–2009. Compiled candidate-level results from DataMeet's india-election-data (winner = the leading candidate per seat).
- 2019 and 2024 winners. Community datasets of Election Commission of India results (2019, 2024), ultimately derived from ECI figures.
- The hex layout was generated from the constituency centroids; constituency names were matched across datasets by spelling, so a handful of seats may be unmatched on the map.
More to come.