2014 Indian general election

General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 election. Around 23.1 million or 2.71% of the total eligible voters were aged 18–19 years. A total of 8,251 candidates contested the 543 elected Lok Sabha seats. The average election turnout over all nine phases was around 66.44%, the highest ever in the history of Indian general elections until the 2019 election.

The results were declared on 16 May, 15 days before the 15th Lok Sabha completed its constitutional mandate on 31 May 2014. The counting exercise was held at 989 counting centers. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received 31% of the vote and won 282 seats, while its National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won a total of 336 seats. Although the Indian National Congress (INC) was defeated by a landslide, the BJP's vote share was the lowest by a party winning a majority of seats since independence, The BJP won 31.2% votes, while NDA's combined vote share was 38.5%. However, the governing coalition had the largest majority since the 1984 elections, and it was the first time since 1984 that a party had won enough seats to govern without the support of other parties.

In contrast, the result was the worst-ever performance by the Indian National Congress (INC), which had ruled India for most of its post-independence history. The INC received 19.3% of the vote and won only 44 seats, with its wider alliance, the United Progressive Alliance, winning a total of just 59. In order to become the official opposition party in India, a party must have 55 seats; as a result, there was no official opposition party.