India 2014 - Results

[Gustaf]

Oh, wow. That's a complete landslide. I'm quite optimistic though - I don't think Modi will emphasize communalism and I think optimism and growth-oriented policies is what India needs right now.

[Gustaf]

Fascinating results. I have to admit that I am in the camp that doesn't think a Modi government will lead to all sorts of disasters and I think India needs the economic reforms that are now more likely.

At the same time, I think it's fair to not want to vote for him due to the riots, the RSS connections and so on.

[Gustaf]

This is not based on any proper analysis at all but I get a feeling that there weren't that many really close marginal seats in this election. Is that just my imagination?

[Gustaf]

This is not based on any proper analysis at all but I get a feeling that there weren't that many really close marginal seats in this election. Is that just my imagination?

You are right, out of 543 seats, 95 were won by a margin of 5% or less.  In 2009 196 seats were won by a margin of 5% of less and in 2004 151 were won by a margin of 5% of less.

Any idea why? Because of BJP overreach in it's good areas?

Also, looking at Al's great list it's kind of striking how much this was an INC loss. They lost seats all over the place, not just to BJP. On that note, the polls seem to have predicted BJP more accurately, while INC ended up doing even worse than the polls showed, no? I remember the talk as being about "omg, INC may actually drop into double digits" and then they fell to like half of that in the election.

[Gustaf]

There's some real LOLFPTP stuff going on there.

This in particular:

J&K
UPA        34.3%  0
NDA        32.6%  3
PDP        23.1%  3

wtf

[Gustaf]

I understood that that is what happened but I still found it rather striking that you actually can end up like that. Pretty extreme polarization.