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India Block: In the Lok Sabha elections 2024, the Congress-led India Block has made a strong comeback, proving all the exit polls wrong. Even though it did not reach the majority, everyone is surprised by the performance of the opposition. Statistically, the India Block could have won nine more seats in the Lok Sabha elections, where it lost by a very narrow margin and the third party got a good number of votes. These parties possibly reduced the vote share of the opposition alliance and pushed the India Block towards defeat.
It would have been beneficial to come with Prakash Ambedkar
The Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) did not win any seat in Maharashtra, but got more votes than the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies in at least four seats. The VBA votes have affected the prospects of the Congress and its allies in Akola, Buldhana, Hatkanangale and Mumbai North-West.
In Mumbai North-West, there was a difference of only 48 votes between the winning Shiv Sena and the second-placed Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray). The VBA got more than 10,000 votes which could have helped India Block. In Hatkanangale, Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena lost by 13,426 votes while the VBA got 32,696 votes.
In Akola, the Congress lost to the BJP by 40,626 votes while the VBA alone got 2.77 lakh votes. The Congress and its allies in Maharashtra held several rounds of talks with Ambedkar, but he stuck to his demand for 6 seats.
BSP spoiled the game
The Bahujan Samaj Party also affected India Block's prospects in three other seats – Jaipur Rural in Rajasthan, Kanker in Chhattisgarh and Morena in Madhya Pradesh. Congress lost to BJP in all three seats. The margin of victory in Jaipur Rural was just 1615 votes but BSP got 3850 votes.
The margin of victory in Kanker was 1884 votes while BSP got 11770 votes. India Block had the best chance in Morena, where the margin of victory was 52,530 and BSP got 1.8 lakh votes.
India Block suffered damage in Assam and Haryana
The other two seats were Karimganj in Assam and Kurukshetra in Haryana. The All India United Democratic Front damaged the Congress' chances of winning the Karimganj seat. In Karimganj, the Congress lost to the BJP by 18,360 votes, while the AIUDF got 29,205 votes.
When Indian National Lok Dal candidate in Kurukshetra lost the election to Aam Aadmi Party candidate Dr. Naveen Jindal of the BJP, Sushil Gupta spoilt the way. The margin of victory was only 29,021 votes while the INLD candidate got 78,708 votes.