Analysis · side by side

The states, ranked

Lok Sabha 1996. 32 states and union territories, 543 seats, ranked side by side.

States compared

1996 · 543 seats in total

Highest turnout

88.5%

Lakshadweep

Lowest turnout

35.92%

Gujarat

Closest contests

0.1%

Puducherry · median margin

Most crowded ballot

74.7

Delhi · candidates per seat

[01]Turnout

Votes as a share of electors · 1996

Lakshadweep 88.5%1 seats

Nagaland 88.32%1 seats

West Bengal 82.66%42 seats

Tripura 79.09%2 seats

Assam 78.5%14 seats

Sikkim 77.43%1 seats

Puducherry 75.35%1 seats

Manipur 75.04%2 seats

Dadra and Nagar Haveli 74.61%1 seats

Mizoram 73.41%1 seats

Kerala 71.11%20 seats

Haryana 70.48%10 seats

Daman and Diu 69.07%1 seats

Tamil Nadu 66.93%39 seats

[02]How close the contests were

Median winning margin · closest first

Puducherry 0.1%1 seats

Lakshadweep 3.43%1 seats

Karnataka 3.9%28 seats

Mizoram 4.8%1 seats

Kerala 5.1%20 seats

Andhra Pradesh 6.83%42 seats

Haryana 7.05%10 seats

Goa 7.05%2 seats

Uttar Pradesh 7.81%85 seats

Punjab 7.9%13 seats

Rajasthan 8.1%25 seats

Assam 8.35%14 seats

Madhya Pradesh 9.22%40 seats

Chandigarh 9.25%1 seats

[04]Candidates per seat

How crowded the ballot paper was

Delhi 74.7523 candidates

Chandigarh 48.048 candidates

Uttar Pradesh 38.83,297 candidates

Karnataka 34.9978 candidates

Andhra Pradesh 34.81,462 candidates

Madhya Pradesh 31.51,259 candidates

Haryana 29.4294 candidates

Rajasthan 27.1677 candidates

Bihar 26.81,448 candidates

Maharashtra 22.21,065 candidates

Gujarat 22.2577 candidates

Puducherry 21.021 candidates

Punjab 19.9259 candidates

Tamil Nadu 19.2749 candidates

[05]Party fragmentation

Effective number of parties by vote share · most fragmented first

Haryana 6.14 of 26 parties won

Tamil Nadu 5.43 of 26 parties won

Bihar 5.38 of 34 parties won

Jammu and Kashmir 4.83 of 7 parties won

Maharashtra 4.83 of 36 parties won

Kerala 4.78 of 18 parties won

Uttar Pradesh 4.78 of 76 parties won

Assam 4.66 of 16 parties won

Punjab 4.43 of 21 parties won

Manipur 4.11 of 10 parties won

Goa 3.82 of 7 parties won

Chandigarh 3.61 of 14 parties won

Karnataka 3.64 of 19 parties won

Andhra Pradesh 3.65 of 29 parties won

[06]Deposits lost

Candidates under a sixth of the valid vote

Delhi 97.32%509 of 523

Chandigarh 93.75%45 of 48

Andhra Pradesh 93.57%1,368 of 1,462

Madhya Pradesh 93.17%1,173 of 1,259

Uttar Pradesh 92.87%3,062 of 3,297

Karnataka 92.54%905 of 978

Rajasthan 92.17%624 of 677

Bihar 91.51%1,325 of 1,448

Haryana 91.16%268 of 294

Puducherry 90.48%19 of 21

Gujarat 90.47%522 of 577

Jammu and Kashmir 90.0%99 of 110

Maharashtra 88.92%947 of 1,065

Tamil Nadu 88.79%665 of 749

[07]Computed insights

Arithmetic over the table above, not commentary

Turnout ranged from 88.5% in Lakshadweep to 35.92% in Gujarat — a spread of 52.58 points.
88.5 - 35.92 across 32 states
Puducherry was the hardest fought: its middle seat was won by 0.1%, against 46.2% in Sikkim.
median winning margin, 1 seats against 1
Delhi had the most crowded ballot at 74.7 candidates a seat, and 97.32% of them lost their deposit.
523 candidates over 7 seats
13 states and UTs returned a clean sweep — every seat went to a single party.
13 of 32 scopes with PartiesWon = 1