Viral social media posts claiming the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) won 30 seats with a margin of less than 500 votes and won more than 100 seats with a margin of less than 1000 votes, are false.
BOOM analysed data published by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and found that the lowest victory margin for a seat won by the BJP is 1587 votes, thus rendering the claim false.
The BJP on its own won 240 seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, and including its allies in the NDA (National Democratic Alliance), the coalition crossed the 272 seats mark required to form the next government.
The viral graphic in Hindi claims, "What would you call this scam? BJP won 30 seats with a margin of less than 500, Won more than 100 seats with a margin of less than 1000".
(In Hindi - इस घोटाले को आप क्या कहेंगे? BJP ने 500 से कम के अंतर से 30 सीटें जीतीं. 1000 से कम के अंतर से 100 से अधिक सीटें जीतीं)
BOOM received the viral graphic that has the logo of 'Bole Bharat' on our WhatsApp number (7700906588) inquiring about its authenticity.
The same claim is being shared on X, and was posted by the handle B M Sandeep (@BMSandeepAICC), AICC Secretary, Gujarat Congress, with the caption, "The magic of EVM's & @ECISVEEP needs to be investigated The BJP has - Won 30 seats with a margin of less than 500 votes. Won more than 100 seats with a margin of less than 1000 votes. These seats should be analysed by by 3 retired SC Justices. Ashoka University professor had to resign for saying there is a scope of manipulation in such small numbers. If manipulation has been done at the behest of PM Narendra Modi then this figure could have been 240-130= 110 seats for the NDA"
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM analysed data published by the Election Commission of India on the 240 seats won by the BJP and found that the lowest victory margin was not below 1587 votes.
The three Lok Sabha seats where the BJP secured the narrowest victory margins were - 1) Jajpur (Odisha) - 1587 votes, 2) Jaipur Rural (Rajasthan) - 1615, 3) Kanker (Chhattisgarh) - 1884.
This can be seen below:
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None of the 240 seats won by the BJP had a victory margin below 1000 votes or 500 votes as the viral graphic falsely claims.
The lowest victory margin in this Lok Sabha election was secured by NDA ally Shiv Sena's Ravindra Waikar winning by just 48 votes over Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)'s Amol Kirtikar in Mumbai North West constituency.
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