Lok Sabha elections 2019: Why states matter in the battle for India

While the overall vote share of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress has hovered around the 50% mark in India since 1989, they are not the main players in a lot of states in the country

With the Election Commission of India issuing notifications for the first phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections; the election process has officially kicked off. At the Hindustan Times newsroom, we believe that the best way to cover the 2019 contest is to look at it as a sum of states which will involve diverse players and have a disproportional impact on the overall picture which will emerge on 23 May, when the results are declared, and starting today, will profile each, either alone or in a grouping (in ascending order of the number of representatives they send to the Lok Sabha). Here are three charts which can put this in perspective.

mpressive performance in a state can give a large number of seats to a regional party with a vote share which is significantly smaller than what the two major parties get. (HT Photo/ Representative Image)