Ninth time a single party crosses 300 mark in Lok Sabha

As the BJP crossed the 300 seat mark in the Lok Sabha elections, it was the ninth time that any single party has achieved such a feat.

The BJP has already won 302 seats and was ahead in one seat in the 543-member Lower House of Parliament.

In 1952, when the first Lok Sabha election was conducted, the Congress had won 398 of 543 seats under the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, as per the data available on the official Lok Sabha website.

Nehru repeated the feat in 1957, by winning 395 of 537 seats and in 1962, by bagging 394 of 540 seats.

In 1967, under Indira Gandhi's leadership, the Congress won 303 seats out of 553.

In 1971, the party represented by Indira Gandhi got a clear two-thirds majority by winning 372 of 553 seats.

In 1977, when the sixth Lok Sabha election was held after the Emergency, the Janata Party, formed through the merger of four anti-Congress parties, won 302 seats out of 557.

This government, however, was unstable and fresh elections were held in 1980, in which the Congress stormed to power yet again with 377 seats of 566.

In 1984, after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the sympathy wave helped the Congress led by her son Rajiv Gandhi win 426 of 567 seats.

Between 1989 and 2014, no single party emerged as a winner and all the governments formed were coalitions. IANS