LS Polls: Three percent vote swing could tweak fate of 114 seats

According to the Election Commission, 114 seats had witnessed victory margin of less than three percent in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Uttar Pradesh had topped the list, where 19 seats out 80 had registered three percent victory margin.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) had to suffer the most in these 19 seats. In fact, there were some seats in UP where victory margin was even less than one percent.

Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi had won against BSP leader Mukhtar Ansari from Varanasi in 2009 with a difference of less than three percent. Modi is contesting from this seat this time around and it could be a tricky affair for him.

The Amritsar seat in Punjab saw a similar trend and the victory margin was even less than one percent here. Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley is contesting elections from the Amritsar constituency this time.

Madhya Pradesh had eight such seats which witnessed victory margin of less than three percent. Here BJP endured most of the sting, losing five of eight seats.

The provision of None Of The Above (NOTA) in the electronic voting machines (EVM) this time around could spell more trouble for all the candidates who are contesting from constituencies having the trend of victory margin less than three percent.

The assembly elections in four states last year saw a good number of people pressing the NOTA button on EVMs, but it would be for the first time that the common man would get a chance to reject all the candidates from their constituencies in the Lok Sabha elections.

Source: Lok Sabha Eletions 2014 News Headlines