VISUALISING ELECTIONS
S Anand, Gramener.com
Which party has the largest number of victories in Lok
Sabha elections?
Which is the only other party has won over 50% of every Lok Sabha seat contested?
INC DMK SAD ADMK CPM TDP BJP JNP JD JD(U)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
51% 50%49%
46%
43% 42%
34%31%
27% 26%
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
7241
286103 197
821
271
2926
1081 943
188
Win %
CandidatesThe number of elections
contested
Lok S
ab
ha
Year
A&N ISLANDS
ARAKKONAM
CHENGALPATTU
CHENNAI CENTRAL
CHENNAI NORTH
CHENNAI SOUTH
CHIDAMBARAM
COIMBATORE
CUDDALORE
DHARAPURAM
DHARMAPURI
DINDIGUL
ERODE
GOBICHETTIPALAYAM
KALLAKURICHI
KANNIYAKUMARI
KARUR
KRISHNAGIRI
KUMBAKONAM
MADRAS CENTRAL
MADRAS NORTH
MADRAS SOUTH
MADURAI
MAYILADUTHURAI
MAYURAM
METTUR
NAGAPATTINAM
NAGERCOIL
NAMAKKAL
NILGIRIS
PALANI
PERAMBALUR
PERIYAKULAM
POLLACHI
PUDUCHERRY
PUDUKKOTTAI
RAMANATHAPURAM
RASIPURAM
SALEM
SIVAGANGA
SIVAKASI
SRIPERUMBUDUR
TENKASI
THANJAVUR
THIRUVALLUR
THIRUVANNAMALAI
THOOTHUKKUDI
TINDIVANAM
TIRUCHENDUR
TIRUCHENGODE
TIRUCHIRAPPALLI
TIRUKOILUR
TIRUNELVELI
TIRUPPATTUR
TIRUTTANI
VANDAVASI
VELLORE
1962 2 4 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 1
1967 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1971 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1977 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2
1980 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1984 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
1989 2 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
1991 2 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
1996 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1998 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2
1999 1 1 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 1
2004 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2009 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1
Does age make a difference?Do old candidates win less
often?
25-30 30-35 35-40 40-45 45-50 50-55 55-60 60-65 65-70 70-75 75-80 80-85 85-90
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
1%2%
4%
6%
9%
11%
14%
11%
16%18%
22% 22%
33%
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Win %The number of winning candidates as a % of candidates in the age group
CandidatesThe number of candidates in
each age group
Lok S
ab
ha (
2004 o
nw
ard
s)
25-30 30-35 35-40 40-45 45-50 50-55 55-60 60-65 65-70 70-75 75-80 80-85 85-90
0%
10%
20%
30%
2%
4%
6%
9%
12%
15%17%
15%16%
18% 18%
20%
27%
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
Win %The number of winning candidates as a % of candidates in the age group
CandidatesThe number of candidates in
each age group
Assem
bly
ele
cti
on
s (
2004 o
nw
ard
s)
On the other hand, which party has the most losses in
Lok Sabha elections?
https://gramener.com/election/story.ddp
Which constituency had the largest number of voters in
2009?
https://gramener.com/election/parliament
Which constituency had the most number of candidates
ever?
HOW CAN I DO ALL THIS?
Data & Tools
The good part is, the ECI website has this data.
… but, some of the data is in PDFs
This is in Excel, but watch out for errors
Parties are mis-spelt
MADMKMAMAKMDMK
Party names change
AIADMKADMKADK
Parties restructure
INC(I)INC
Constituency names mis-spelt
BHADRACHALAMBHADRACHELAMBHADRAHCALAM
State names mis-spelt
MadhyaPradeshMadhya Pradesh
Gender codes vary
Punjab uses ‘W’ instead of ‘F’
Number of columns vary
2008-2012 elections usetwo columns for number of voters
Format of files vary
There’s enough data out there.
The tools you have that are good enough.
Let’s get people to see elections.