Results/Party performance Results
ECI results
Analysis · votes into seats

What a vote was worth

Karnataka, 2024. 474 candidates from 58 parties contested 28 seats; 3 parties won at least one.

Parties contesting
58
2024 · 3 of them won a seat
Largest party
17seats
Bharatiya Janta Party · 46.35% of votes
Deposits lost
88.19%
418 of 474 candidates
Effective parties
2.3
By vote share · lower means more dominant
Candidates per seat
16.9
474 for 28 declared seats

[02]Vote share against seat share

2024 · bar is vote share, marker is seat share

First-past-the-post rarely pays out in proportion. The bar is the share of votes a party won; the marker is the share of seats it took. A marker to the right of its bar means the system paid the party more seats than its votes alone would buy.

Bharatiya Janta Party 46.35%17 seats · +14.37 pts
Indian National Congr… 45.64%9 seats · -13.5 pts
Janata Dal (secular) 5.64%2 seats · +1.51 pts
Independent 1.41%0 seats · -1.41 pts

[03]Strike rate — candidates who won

2024 · parties fielding 5 or more
Bharatiya Janta Party 68.0%17/25
Indian National Congr… 32.14%9/28
Independent 0.0%0/235
Bahujan Samaj Party 0.0%0/21
Karnataka Rashtra Sam… 0.0%0/28
Uttama Prajaakeeya Pa… 0.0%0/20
Socialist Unity Centr… 0.0%0/19

[04]Deposits lost

Candidates under a sixth of the valid vote · newest first
2024 88.19%418 of 474
2019 88.29%422 of 478
2014 85.71%372 of 434
2009 84.78%362 of 427
2004 59.3%102 of 172
1999 53.85%70 of 130
1998 64.5%129 of 200
1996 92.54%905 of 978
1991 81.07%317 of 391
1989 74.79%181 of 242

[05]How crowded the ballot got

Candidates per seat · newest first
2024 16.9474 candidates
2019 17.1478 candidates
2014 15.5434 candidates
2009 15.3427 candidates
2004 6.1172 candidates
1999 4.6130 candidates
1998 7.1200 candidates
1996 34.9978 candidates
1991 14.0391 candidates
1989 8.6242 candidates

[06]Independents

Candidates standing without a party · newest first
2024 2350 won
2019 2641 won
2014 1960 won
2009 2600 won
2004 400 won
1999 260 won
1998 640 won
1996 8530 won
1991 2660 won
1989 1280 won

[07]Computed insights

Arithmetic over the table above, not commentary

  1. Bharatiya Janta Party took 60.71% of the seats on 46.35% of the votes — a seat bonus of +14.37 pts.

    seat share 60.71 - vote share 46.35

  2. Indian National Congress went the other way: 45.64% of votes returned only 32.14% of seats.

    seat share 32.14 - vote share 45.64

  3. 88.19% of candidates lost their deposit in 2024 — 418 of 474 polled under a sixth of the valid vote.

    418/474 below the one-sixth threshold

  4. 235 independents stood and 0 won — a strike rate of 0.0%.

    0/235 independents

  5. The field has grown more concentrated since 1962: the effective number of parties moved from 3.1 to 2.3.

    Laakso-Taagepera 1/sum(share^2), 1962 vs 2024
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