Analysis · side by side

The states, ranked

Lok Sabha 1991. 31 states and union territories, 534 seats, ranked side by side.

States compared

1991 · 534 seats in total

Highest turnout

79.97%

Lakshadweep

Lowest turnout

23.96%

Punjab

Closest contests

1.11%

Lakshadweep · median margin

Most crowded ballot

71.7

Delhi · candidates per seat

[01]Turnout

Votes as a share of electors · 1991

Lakshadweep 79.97%1 seats

Nagaland 77.07%1 seats

West Bengal 76.73%42 seats

Assam 75.25%14 seats

Kerala 73.32%20 seats

Manipur 69.65%2 seats

Puducherry 67.71%1 seats

Tripura 67.28%2 seats

Haryana 65.84%10 seats

Daman and Diu 65.53%1 seats

Dadra and Nagar Haveli 64.58%1 seats

Tamil Nadu 63.92%39 seats

Andaman and Nicobar I… 63.46%1 seats

Andhra Pradesh 59.81%42 seats

[02]How close the contests were

Median winning margin · closest first

Lakshadweep 1.11%1 seats

Kerala 3.6%20 seats

Mizoram 3.9%1 seats

Himachal Pradesh 4.05%4 seats

Manipur 4.8%2 seats

Delhi 4.9%7 seats

Daman and Diu 6.03%1 seats

Andaman and Nicobar I… 6.24%1 seats

Odisha 6.7%21 seats

Chandigarh 7.06%1 seats

Haryana 7.3%10 seats

Uttar Pradesh 7.53%84 seats

Nagaland 8.3%1 seats

Assam 8.75%14 seats

[04]Candidates per seat

How crowded the ballot paper was

Delhi 71.7502 candidates

Chandigarh 55.055 candidates

Bihar 23.41,214 candidates

Rajasthan 21.0526 candidates

Haryana 19.8198 candidates

Uttar Pradesh 19.11,605 candidates

Maharashtra 18.0862 candidates

Madhya Pradesh 17.1683 candidates

Goa 16.533 candidates

Gujarat 16.2420 candidates

Andhra Pradesh 14.5609 candidates

Karnataka 14.0391 candidates

Puducherry 13.013 candidates

Daman and Diu 12.012 candidates

[05]Party fragmentation

Effective number of parties by vote share · most fragmented first

Assam 6.66 of 20 parties won

Uttar Pradesh 4.86 of 41 parties won

Bihar 4.76 of 32 parties won

Kerala 4.75 of 17 parties won

Haryana 4.32 of 16 parties won

Manipur 4.12 of 8 parties won

West Bengal 3.85 of 28 parties won

Tamil Nadu 3.72 of 23 parties won

Chandigarh 3.71 of 10 parties won

Maharashtra 3.44 of 33 parties won

Karnataka 3.43 of 22 parties won

Punjab 3.22 of 11 parties won

Mizoram 3.11 of 4 parties won

Andhra Pradesh 3.16 of 24 parties won

[06]Deposits lost

Candidates under a sixth of the valid vote

Delhi 96.81%486 of 502

Chandigarh 94.55%52 of 55

Bihar 90.28%1,096 of 1,214

Rajasthan 89.73%472 of 526

Tripura 88.24%15 of 17

Madhya Pradesh 87.56%598 of 683

Gujarat 87.38%367 of 420

Haryana 87.37%173 of 198

Uttar Pradesh 86.79%1,393 of 1,605

Maharashtra 86.78%748 of 862

Sikkim 85.71%6 of 7

Andhra Pradesh 85.22%519 of 609

Goa 84.85%28 of 33

Puducherry 84.62%11 of 13

[07]Computed insights

Arithmetic over the table above, not commentary

Turnout ranged from 79.97% in Lakshadweep to 23.96% in Punjab — a spread of 56.01 points.
79.97 - 23.96 across 31 states
Lakshadweep was the hardest fought: its middle seat was won by 1.11%, against 84.6% in Sikkim.
median winning margin, 1 seats against 1
Delhi had the most crowded ballot at 71.7 candidates a seat, and 96.81% of them lost their deposit.
502 candidates over 7 seats
13 states and UTs returned a clean sweep — every seat went to a single party.
13 of 31 scopes with PartiesWon = 1