New Delhi, July 18 (IANS) The recently concluded Lok Sabha elections saw 341 of 542 candidates, including many with criminal records, winning with over 50 per cent of the total votes polled in their constituencies, according to a report.

The people of the country elected Narendra Modi for the Prime Minister for the second consecutive term as the BJP bagged 303 of the 542 seats.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the National Election Watch (NEW) in its report said that 341, which is 63 per cent, winners won with a margin of over 50 per cent and above of the total votes polled in their constituency. “While 201, which is 37 per cent, winners won with less than 50 per cent of the total votes polled in their constituency,” the report said.

The report claimed that the winners of the 2019 general elections won by an average of 52.7 per cent of total votes polled. It said of the 303 winners of the BJP, 79 candidates, which is 26 per cent, won with less than 50 per cent of total votes polled in their constituencies.

Of the 52 candidates of the Congress winning candidates, only 34, 65 per cent, won with less than 50 per cent of total votes. While the four of the 23 candidates of the DMK won with less than 50 per cent of the total votes.

The report said that 16 of the 22 winning candidates of the Trinamool Congress and nine out of the 22 winning candidates of the YSRCP won with less than 50 per cent of total votes polled in their constituency.

It said that 132 of the 233 winning candidates, analysed with declared criminal cases, have won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above. It said 115 of the 233 winners with declared criminal cases have won against a runner up with a “clean” background.

“Among these 115 winners, six candidates have won with more than 40 per cent margin of victory,” the report said.

It further said that there are 115 winners with a clean background who have won against a runner up with declared criminal cases. “Of these 115 winners, seven have won with more than 40 per cent margin of victory,” the report said. The report also said that 313 of the 475 “crorepati” (wealthy) winning candidates also won with a vote share of 50 per cent and above.

“Fifty four of the 475 ‘crorepati’ winners have won against a non-crorepati runners up while there are 48 non-crorepati winners who have won against crorepati runners up, of which 21 have won with more than 50 per cent of vote share,” the report said.

The report highlighted that of the total 225 re-elected winners 160, which is 71 per cent, won with more than 50 per cent of the vote share.

“And 28 re-elected winners have won with less than 5 per cent of margin of victory whereas 15 have won with more than 40 per cent of margin of victory.”

The report said that 78 women candidates won the elections this year and the BJP candidate from Gujarat’s Surat Darshana Vikram Jardosh won with the highest vote share.

According to the ADR report, she got 74.47 per cent of the vote share in her constituency and her winning margin was 51.3 per cent. It also highlighted the drop in the number of votes polled for NOTA in this election as compared to 2014 general elections.

“Of 61,31,33,300 votes polled in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, 65,14,558, which is 1.06 per cent, were polled for NOTA. In 2014, of 55,38,02,946 votes polled, 60,02,942, which was 1.08 per cent, were polled for NOTA,” it said.

The NOTA button option was instated by the Election Commission in 2013 that gave the voters an option of rejecting all the candidates in their constituency.