The Indian National Congress surprised everyone by winning 99 seats, a milestone which no exit polls or pollster predicted.In 2014 the Congress won 44 seats. In 2019, the party won 55 seats.
In 2024, the Congress won 44 more Lok Sabha seats than its 2019 tally.
The Congress won 21.19 percent votes and did much better than the Bharatiya Janata Party in states like Maharashtra where it won 13 seats, four more than the BJP which won 9 seats.
"The BJP coalition has won the elections but is feeling the taste of defeat whereas the Congress and its alliance partners who will sit in the Opposition are feeling the day of triumph," Rasheed Kidwai, the veteran Congress watcher and author of 24 Akbar Road and Sonia: A Biography, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com.