Several records were broken in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the result of which was declared a few days back. That also includes the highest-ever winning margin.

This feat has been achieved by the INC’s Rakibul Hussain, who emerged as the record-holder by winning in Dhubri, Assam with an impressive margin of 10.12 lakh votes. He also became the first Congress candidate to achieve this feat since 1999 with a total vote count of 14.71 lakhs, defeating AIUDF’s Mohammed Badruddin Ajmal who trailed behind.

Previously, the record for the highest winning margin in a general election was held by BJP’s C.R. Patil, the incumbent MP of Navsari in Gujarat. During the 2019 elections, he won with a margin of 6.89 lakh votes.

In 2024, apart from Hussain, five other MP elects too managed to cross this winning margin. This includes BJP’s Indore candidate Shankar Lalwani (10.08 lakh margin), former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan (8.21 lakh) from Vidisha, CR Patil (7.73 lakh) from Navsari in Gujarat, Home Minister Amit Shah (7.44 lakh) from Gandhinagar and AITC leader Abhishek Banerjee from West Bengal’s Diamond Harbour (7.1 lakh).

Lalwani won the Indore seat, where he secured 12.26 lakh votes. In this constituency, NOTA (None Of The Above) came second with 2.18 lakh people opting for this option. This was after the Congress candidate Akshay Kanti Bam took back his nomination and joined the BJP. BSP’s Sanjay Solanki came third with a mere 51,659 votes.

On the other hand, Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Waikar won with the lowest margin of 48 votes against Shiv Sena UBT’s Amol Kirtikar, from Mumbai North West. He is followed by INC’s Adoor Prakash, who won from Kerala’s Attingal with a margin of 684 votes.

Looking back

Candidates winning by huge margins is no new feat. During the 2014 bye-election in Beed, Maharashtra, BJP’s Pritam Munde — daughter of Gopinath Munde — won by a 6.96 lakh vote margin, making it the highest record for a by-poll in electoral history. However, during the general election that year, the record breaker was Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He emerged victorious in Gujarat’s Vadodara with a winning margin of 5.7 lakh votes.

Another prominent leader who set margin records in previous general elections is former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao in 1991 from Nandyal. Lok Janshakti Party founder Ram Vilas Paswan too broke the record twice, in 1977 and 1989 respectively. In 1989, Paswan broke his own record that he set in 1977.

(The writer is an intern with businessline)

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