Analysis · side by side

The states, ranked

Lok Sabha 1984. 31 states and union territories, 542 seats, ranked side by side.

States compared

1984 · 542 seats in total

Highest turnout

86.61%

Lakshadweep

Lowest turnout

54.47%

Meghalaya

Closest contests

3.9%

West Bengal · median margin

Most crowded ballot

33.0

Chandigarh · candidates per seat

[01]Turnout

Votes as a share of electors · 1984

Lakshadweep 86.61%1 seats

Manipur 85.76%2 seats

West Bengal 78.61%42 seats

Assam 77.4%14 seats

Tripura 77.32%2 seats

Kerala 77.13%20 seats

Andaman and Nicobar I… 76.99%1 seats

Arunachal Pradesh 75.46%2 seats

Tamil Nadu 72.98%39 seats

Puducherry 72.28%1 seats

Daman and Diu 71.81%2 seats

Dadra and Nagar Haveli 70.99%1 seats

Chandigarh 68.1%1 seats

Andhra Pradesh 67.4%42 seats

[02]How close the contests were

Median winning margin · closest first

West Bengal 3.9%42 seats

Tripura 4.95%2 seats

Manipur 6.45%2 seats

Kerala 8.65%20 seats

Lakshadweep 8.93%1 seats

Assam 9.05%14 seats

Gujarat 9.5%26 seats

Arunachal Pradesh 9.75%2 seats

Andhra Pradesh 9.98%42 seats

Karnataka 10.95%28 seats

Punjab 11.6%13 seats

Dadra and Nagar Haveli 14.02%1 seats

Maharashtra 20.05%48 seats

Andaman and Nicobar I… 21.51%1 seats

[04]Candidates per seat

How crowded the ballot paper was

Chandigarh 33.033 candidates

Delhi 27.0189 candidates

Haryana 20.0200 candidates

Uttar Pradesh 14.61,242 candidates

Bihar 12.5676 candidates

Rajasthan 12.5313 candidates

Karnataka 11.9334 candidates

Daman and Diu 10.521 candidates

Maharashtra 10.4498 candidates

Puducherry 10.010 candidates

Madhya Pradesh 10.0398 candidates

Gujarat 8.8229 candidates

Jammu and Kashmir 8.048 candidates

Sikkim 8.08 candidates

[05]Party fragmentation

Effective number of parties by vote share · most fragmented first

Kerala 5.36 of 12 parties won

Manipur 4.21 of 7 parties won

Tamil Nadu 3.73 of 11 parties won

Bihar 3.26 of 11 parties won

Maharashtra 3.25 of 11 parties won

Daman and Diu 3.21 of 8 parties won

Punjab 3.12 of 7 parties won

Uttar Pradesh 3.02 of 11 parties won

Jammu and Kashmir 3.02 of 7 parties won

Arunachal Pradesh 2.91 of 4 parties won

Gujarat 2.83 of 8 parties won

Rajasthan 2.81 of 9 parties won

Haryana 2.81 of 7 parties won

West Bengal 2.75 of 12 parties won

[06]Deposits lost

Candidates under a sixth of the valid vote

Chandigarh 93.94%31 of 33

Delhi 93.12%176 of 189

Haryana 90.0%180 of 200

Uttar Pradesh 86.39%1,073 of 1,242

Karnataka 83.23%278 of 334

Bihar 82.99%561 of 676

Rajasthan 82.43%258 of 313

Daman and Diu 80.95%17 of 21

Maharashtra 80.12%399 of 498

Puducherry 80.0%8 of 10

Madhya Pradesh 79.4%316 of 398

Himachal Pradesh 77.42%24 of 31

Gujarat 76.86%176 of 229

Sikkim 75.0%6 of 8

[07]Computed insights

Arithmetic over the table above, not commentary

Turnout ranged from 86.61% in Lakshadweep to 54.47% in Meghalaya — a spread of 32.14 points.
86.61 - 54.47 across 30 states
West Bengal was the hardest fought: its middle seat was won by 3.9%, against 42.46% in Chandigarh.
median winning margin, 42 seats against 1
Chandigarh had the most crowded ballot at 33.0 candidates a seat, and 93.94% of them lost their deposit.
33 candidates over 1 seats
18 states and UTs returned a clean sweep — every seat went to a single party.
18 of 31 scopes with PartiesWon = 1