Fact Check: Did BJP get only 201 votes in Muslim-majority Lakshadweep?

Hyderabad: Following the declaration of the 2024 Lok Sabha election results, several social media users claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received only 201 votes in the Lakshadweep elections.

Lakshadweep is a Union Territory (UT) off the southwestern coast of mainland India governed directly by the Union government. The claim is based on the assertion that Lakshadweep has a 96 per cent Muslim population, which many alleged, caused the low number of votes for the BJP.

“In Lakshadweep, where Muslims are 96%, BJP has got only 201 votes, which clearly shows that Muslims are not in favour of development. No matter how much Prime Minister Narendra Modi does for Abdul, the truth is that he will not vote,” wrote an X user who made the communal claim. (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading, as the BJP did not field a candidate in Lakshadweep in 2024. It only allied with the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) which fielded a candidate in Lakshadweep in 2024.

We began with a keyword search and found a report by The Hindu dated June 4. According to the report, the main contest in Lakshadweep was between the Congress party and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA); the NDA, through the NCP, fielded TP Yousuf in Lakshadweep.

Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar (NCP-SP) party and the Congress party – members of the INDIA bloc – were also contesting against each other in Lakshadweep.

In the end, Congress candidate Muhammed Hamdulla Sayeed won the Lakshadweep Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The incumbent MP, Mohammed Faizal Padippura of NCP-SP, lost to him by a margin of 2,647 votes. Yousuf TP of NCP received only 201 votes, which many claim to be BJP's vote count in Lakshadweep.

We confirmed the same on the website of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

According to the ECI data on the results in Lakshadweep, Congress candidate Muhammed Hamdulla Sayeed received 25,726 votes, the NCP-SP candidate Mohammed Faizal received 23,079 votes, NCP candidate Yousuf TP received 201 votes and the independent candidate Koya received 61 votes.

How did the claim originate?

On January 4 this year, prime minister Narendra Modi posted pictures on his X account of a recent trip to Lakshadweep where he tried his hand at snorkelling. This move was part of BJP’s dual strategy to attract votes and promote Lakshadweep as a prime tourism destination.

According to the Lakshadweep administration’s official website, Lakshadweep has a Muslim population of over 93 per cent as per the 2011 census.

Hence, by sharing photos of PM Modi snorkelling in Lakshadweep, many social users claimed that the BJP was not able to make any gains in the UT despite PM Modi’s attempt to promote it personally.

However, since the BJP did not directly contest the Lok Sabha polls in Lakshadweep, we conclude that the claim is misleading.