2024 LS polls: 6 candidates who bettered 2014 record of biggest victory margin

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be remembered for several reasons. It marked a resurgence of the Opposition, sprung up some nasty surprises for both the NDA and the INDIA, and brought some shock defeats. It will also be remembered as the polls when at least six candidates won their Lok Sabha seats by victory margins that shattered the previous record of 6.96 lakh votes set by BJP’s Pritam Munde in the Beed bypoll in Maharashtra in October 2014.

So, here are the six big winners of 2024 Lok Sabha polls:

1. Shankar Lalwani (BJP), Indore, Madhya Pradesh

Indore’s sitting MP Shankar Lalwani has set the new record for victory margin that will be difficult to shatter for future candidates — 11.72 lakh votes.

It is another matter that the record was set in the backdrop of a controversial withdrawal of the Congress candidate on the last day for filing of nominations and his subsequent switching of sides to the BJP. After the Congress candidate, Akshay Kanti Bam, jumped ship, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari, claimed he had been “threatened and tortured” by the BJP to take the step.

Unable to field a candidate, the Congress had urged the electorate to vote for NOTA (none of the above) and a whopping 2.18 voters obliged. That was another record — this one for the highest NOTA votes. So, Indore has essentially set two records these polls.

2. Rakibul Hussain (Congress), Dhubri, Assam

Congress leader Rakibul Hussain scored the second-highest victory margin of 10.12 lakh from Assam’s Dhubri on the India-Bangladesh border.

Rakibul Hussain’s victory is much more dramatic than Lalwani’s because he pulled it off in a largely saffronised state, even though the saffron wave is on the decline in the state, like its other northeastern sisters.

The BJP did not field a candidate in Dhubri though. Rakibul defeated three-time MP from the seat, Badruddin Ajmal, founder of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and the state-president of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind. The perfume seller-cum-maulvi is regularly listed among “The 500 Most Influential Muslims” of the world.

However, all the did not work for the powerful Muslim leader as he netted only 459,409 votes compared to Rakibul’s 1,471,885.

3. Shivraj Singh Chouhan (BJP), Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan won the Vidisha seat by a margin of 8.21 lakh votes. The seat, which has been a stronghold of the saffron party since 1967, has been represented in the past by BJP stalwarts like Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1991), the late Sushma Swaraj (2009-2019), and Chouhan himself (1991-2005), slipping into Vajpayee’s gigantic shoes at the age of 32 in the bypoll after the latter gave it up because of wins in two seats.

Chouhan, who has headed governments in Madhya Pradesh for 20 years (2005-2018, 2020-2023), was replaced with Mohan Yadav by the BJP top brass last December, but he has proved with this massive victory that “Mama” is still the boss of MP politics. Incidentally, his nearest rival, with 295,052 votes, was 77-year-old Pratap Bhanu Sharma, who held the Vidisha constituency from 1980 to 1991. After 33 years, he returned to face Chouhan again, only to face a massive loss.

4. CR Patil (BJP), Navsari, Gujarat

Patil, a three-term MP from Navsari, had held the record for the second-highest margin after winning the seat by 6.89 lakh votes in 2019. He has broken his personal record by winning the seat this time with a margin of 7.73 lakh votes.

The BJP chief of the party’s fortress Gujarat bagged 1,031,065 votes, while his nearest rival, Naishadh Desai, could manage only 257,514 votes.

5. Amit Shah (BJP), Gandhinagar, Gujarat

Union Home Minister Amit Shah defended the Gandhinagar seat by increasing his vote share as well as with a whopping margin of over 7.44 lakh votes.

Gandhinagar is another BJP fortress, being represented in the past by LK Advani (1991, 1998-2019) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1996, which he gave up).

While Shah had bagged 894,000 (70%) votes in 2019, this time he has scored 1,010,972 (76.48%) votes, while his nearest rival, Congress’s Sonal Patel, could only manage 266,256 votes.

6. Abhishek Banerjee (TMC), Diamond Harbour, West Bengal

As the Trinamool Congress made a big comeback in West Bengal after being seriously challenged by the BJP in the 2019 polls, party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee set a new record from the state by winning the Diamond Harbour seat by a margin of 7.10 lakh votes. He has represented the seat since 2014.

While Abhishek, party supremo Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and party second-in-command, polled a phenomenal 10,48,230 votes, nearest rival Abhijit Das Bobby of the BJP managed 337,300 votes. The CPM’s Pratik Ur Rahaman came third with 86,953 votes.

With this, Abhishek smashed the previous record for victory margin held by the late Anil Basu of the CPM, who had won the Arambagh seat by a margin of 592,502 votes in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. He had reportedly wanted to better his winning margin this time, though no one foresaw the massive victory. Das, however, protested outside the counting centre since Tuesday morning, alleging manipulation by TMC counting agents.

Other big wins

Among other candidates who won by a margin of over 5 lakh votes were Union Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who won back Guna in Madhya Pradesh by more than 5.40 lakh votes.

The BJP’s Gujarat candidates Rajpalsingh Jadav won Panchmahal by 5.09 lakh votes, while Hemang Joshi bagged the Vadodara seat with 5.82 lakh votes. In Bhopal, the party’s Alok Sharma won by 5.01 lakh votes while Sudheer Gupta emerged victorious from Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsour with over 5 lakh votes.

The BJP’s Mahesh Sharma won from Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddha Nagar by 5.59 lakh votes while the saffron party’s candidate from Raipur in Chattisgarh Brijmohan Agarwal secured a margin of 5.75 lakh.

Former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb of the BJP won the Tripura West seat by a margin of more than 6 lakh votes, while party colleague Kriti Dev Debbarman won the Tripura East seat by more than 4.86 lakh votes.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi bettered Sonia Gandhi’s 2019 victory margin from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, winning by more than 3.90 lakh votes. Gandhi also won from Wayanad in Kerala by a margin of more than 3.64 lakh votes.