Analysis · side by side

The states, ranked

Lok Sabha 1971. 27 states and union territories, 521 seats, ranked side by side.

States compared

1971 · 521 seats in total

Highest turnout

71.82%

Tamil Nadu

Lowest turnout

41.19%

Himachal Pradesh

Closest contests

1.55%

Manipur · median margin

Most crowded ballot

11.0

Chandigarh · candidates per seat

[01]Turnout

Votes as a share of electors · 1971

Tamil Nadu 71.82%39 seats

Andaman and Nicobar I… 70.54%1 seats

Puducherry 70.1%1 seats

Dadra and Nagar Haveli 65.61%1 seats

Kerala 64.53%19 seats

Delhi 64.37%7 seats

Haryana 64.35%9 seats

Chandigarh 61.96%1 seats

West Bengal 61.94%41 seats

Tripura 60.85%2 seats

Maharashtra 59.94%45 seats

Punjab 59.9%13 seats

Jammu and Kashmir 58.12%6 seats

Andhra Pradesh 57.6%41 seats

[02]How close the contests were

Median winning margin · closest first

Manipur 1.55%2 seats

Dadra and Nagar Haveli 6.21%1 seats

Tripura 6.8%2 seats

Daman and Diu 7.15%2 seats

West Bengal 10.8%41 seats

Haryana 12.6%9 seats

Odisha 12.9%20 seats

Bihar 13.53%53 seats

Kerala 14.6%19 seats

Gujarat 14.7%26 seats

Madhya Pradesh 15.05%37 seats

Rajasthan 15.2%23 seats

Tamil Nadu 15.8%39 seats

Punjab 19.3%13 seats

[04]Candidates per seat

How crowded the ballot paper was

Chandigarh 11.011 candidates

Delhi 9.164 candidates

Bihar 7.9421 candidates

Haryana 7.063 candidates

Daman and Diu 6.513 candidates

Uttar Pradesh 6.4543 candidates

Punjab 6.483 candidates

Rajasthan 5.6129 candidates

Assam 5.678 candidates

Manipur 5.511 candidates

Jammu and Kashmir 5.332 candidates

Maharashtra 5.2235 candidates

Andhra Pradesh 5.1207 candidates

Himachal Pradesh 5.020 candidates

[05]Party fragmentation

Effective number of parties by vote share · most fragmented first

Kerala 6.17 of 13 parties won

Bihar 4.67 of 25 parties won

Manipur 4.51 of 6 parties won

West Bengal 4.57 of 16 parties won

Odisha 4.24 of 12 parties won

Tamil Nadu 4.16 of 10 parties won

Daman and Diu 4.12 of 5 parties won

Uttar Pradesh 3.56 of 23 parties won

Rajasthan 3.34 of 11 parties won

Punjab 3.23 of 11 parties won

Haryana 3.13 of 14 parties won

Dadra and Nagar Haveli 2.91 of 3 parties won

Madhya Pradesh 2.94 of 13 parties won

Tripura 2.91 of 5 parties won

[06]Deposits lost

Candidates under a sixth of the valid vote

Chandigarh 81.82%9 of 11

Delhi 79.69%51 of 64

Himachal Pradesh 75.0%15 of 20

Assam 71.8%56 of 78

Haryana 71.43%45 of 63

Bihar 71.02%299 of 421

Daman and Diu 69.23%9 of 13

Punjab 67.47%56 of 83

Uttar Pradesh 67.04%364 of 543

Rajasthan 64.34%83 of 129

Maharashtra 64.26%151 of 235

Jammu and Kashmir 62.5%20 of 32

Andhra Pradesh 62.32%129 of 207

Andaman and Nicobar I… 60.0%3 of 5

[07]Computed insights

Arithmetic over the table above, not commentary

Turnout ranged from 71.82% in Tamil Nadu to 41.19% in Himachal Pradesh — a spread of 30.64 points.
71.82 - 41.19 across 26 states
Manipur was the hardest fought: its middle seat was won by 1.55%, against 56.95% in Himachal Pradesh.
median winning margin, 2 seats against 4
Chandigarh had the most crowded ballot at 11.0 candidates a seat, and 81.82% of them lost their deposit.
11 candidates over 1 seats
11 states and UTs returned a clean sweep — every seat went to a single party.
11 of 27 scopes with PartiesWon = 1