The Lok Sabha elections 2019 might be done and dusted with the BJP scripting a thumping victory. The saffron party bettered its numbers from 282 in 2014 to 303 in 2019. However, the story of BJP's win does not end there. A closer look at the election results reveals another fact—the BJP also recorded huge victory margins in the election.
The greatest star here is C.R. Patil, who beat his closest competition Patil Dharmeshbhai Bhimbhai of the Congress in Gujarat's Navsari constituency by a margin of 6.87 lakh votes. Patil's is the largest margin in the 2019 general elections, and the second largest ever recorded in the history of Indian elections.
Patil joined the BJP in 1989, and has since held several important positions within the party. Most notably, he was appointed a member of the Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare in 2015. Also, in 2014, he was appointed a member of the committee on Government Assurances and Constructive Committee of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Patil has been in a league of himself in the constituency, with three consecutive victories starting from 2009 when he defeated the Congress's Dhansukh Rajput in Surat by 1.32 lakh votes. In 2014, he won by over 5 lakh votes against his Congress rival Maksud Mirza in Navsari.
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Apart from Patil, Sanjay Bhatia (Karnal, Haryana), Krishan Pal (Faridabad, Haryana) and Subhash Chandra Baheria (Bhilwara, Rajasthan) have won by over 6 lakh votes.
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The largest margin of victory ever recorded in an Indian election was in a 2014 byelection from Beed seat in Maharashtra. Pritam Munde, the second daughter of BJP leader Gopinath Munde, won the poll by over 6.9 lakh. The byelection was necessitated by the untimely death of her father in a road accident in June, 2014. The BJP was able to capitalise on Gopinath Munde’s popularity as someone who had risen from the OBC mass in the state. Another reason for his popularity was having three daughters in a region infamous for female foeticide.
Pritam has since gone on to retain her seat, winning again in 2019, amidst suspicions of foul play surrounding her father’s death. Her victory this time is much less striking, with a modest margin of 1.69 lakhs over Bajrang Manohar Sonwane of the NCP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also has his share in terms of huge victory margins registered this time. He bettered his performance in Varanasi, winning by a margin of 4.79 lakh votes, compared to his 2014 margin of 3.71 lakh votes. However, his margin was bettered by more than a dozen BJP candidates in other constituencies who won by over 5 lakh votes.