LS polls: UPA performance only marginally better than last time

Congress managed to add only eight seats to its tally of 44 it had won in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, marking its second consecutive electoral debacle in five years.

Last elections were the worst for the Congress when it got the lowest number in the Lok Sabha since Independence.

The only consolation for the Congress came from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Punjab where it could score some reasonable gains.

In Tamil Nadu, Congress bagged 8 seats while its alliance partner Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) won a whopping 23 seats. The other alliance partners Communist Party of India (CPI) and CPI (M) each secured two seats while Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) got one seat each in the state where 38 parliamentary constituencies went to polls.

Polling in Vellore constituency by Election Commission of India (ECI) after a lot of cash was seized during a raid.

Congress was wiped out from three states- Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where the party formed the governments after Assembly elections five months ago. It got only seat each in Madhya Pradesh and two in Chhattisgarh, while it was wiped out in Rajasthan.

The three states together have 65 seats and BJP got 61 of them.

Punjab and Kerala bolstered Congress' tally to reach 52 as they returned 23 Congress members to the Lok Sabha.

In Kerala, the Congress-led United Democratic Front won 19 of the 20 seats in the state. Its allies, the Indian Union Muslim League won two seats while the Kerala Congress (Mani group) and Revolutionary Socialist Party won one seat each. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who lost his family bastion Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, registered an impressive victory from Wayanad in Kerala.

However, in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand and Meghalaya, Congress could win only one seat each while it drew a blank in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Delhi, Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur.

In Karnataka, where the Congress-Janata Dal (S) coalition is in power, the UPA has been decimated to only two seats. Congress candidate D K Suresh retained his Bengaluru Rural parliamentary seat. Even, former prime minister and JD(S) supremo HD Devegowda suffered defeat in Tumkur. BJP has swept the state clean with wins in 25 seats out of 28 and helped an Independent win the Mandya seat.

The NDA coalition bagged 351 seats including BJP (303), Shiv Sena (18), Janata Dal United (16), Lok Janshakti Party (6), two each of Akali Dal and Apna Dal and 1 each of All Jharkhand Students Union, Loktantrik Party, Mizo National front and National People's Party.

BJP alone swept 303 parliamentary constituencies across the country and Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has notched up just 87 seats.