Compiled by: Tripti Narain 1. PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s mother and father share the same name- Krishna, His father’s name is Krishna Bihari Vajpayee and mother’s name is Krishna Devi

2. Country`s 5 biggest and 5 smallest constituencies according to area:
Biggest constituencies

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  Barmer (Rajasthan) : 71601.24 sq-km
  Ladakh (J&K) : 173266.37 sq-km
  Arunachal (East) (AP): 39749.64 sq-km
  Kuchh (Gujarat) : 41644.55 sq-km
  Arunachal(West) AP: 40572.29 sq-km

3. Smallest constituencies

  Mumbai South 13.73 sq-km
  Mumbai South-central: 18.31 sq-km
  Delhi sadar- 28.09 sq-km
  Chandni chowk (Delhi) : 10.59 sq-km
  Kolkata north west 13.23 sq-km
4. The Election Commission of India has seen many firsts, but here`s another first -- it now has two election commissioners who are fluent in Gujarati. The latest to join, N Gopalaswamy, is an IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre and, therefore, speaks Gujarati. That 63-year-old Chief Election Commissioner Taruvai Subbayya Krishna Murthy also speaks fluent Gujarati 5. A 101 yr old blind man voted in Guna, MP in 1999 LS polls
6. Nagaland recorded lowest voter turnout of 38% in 1999 LS polls
7. A village with only three voters…it’s a remote tribal hamlet in Arunachal Pradesh where there are just three registered voters!!
14. Aligarh is not a Muslim dominated constituency and it has never returned a Muslim MP
15. Lakshadweep has the largest presence of Muslims of all the states/UTs including Jammu and Kashmir
16. Gurdaspur in Punjab has a sizable Christian presence
17. Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh is the only constituency in the Hindi belt which has always returned Congress during the general elections.
18. Indrajit Gupta has a record number of ten victories in Lok Sabha polls
19. P V Narasimha Rao won by a record margin of 5.81 lakh votes from Nandyal in a by-election in 1991 20. Atal Bihari Vajpayee is the only politician who has won from six different constituencies:   Balrampur – 1957, 1967
  Gwalior – 1971
  New delhi 1977, 1980
  Vidisha- 1991
  Gandhinagar- 1996
  Lucknow- 1991, 1996, 1998

21. BJP won Lok Sabha seats for the first time in the states of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in 1998
22. Nav Buddhists are a crucial electoral factor in Maharashtra

23. Rajnandgaon in Madhya Pradesh has a unique feature- father, mother and son have represented this constituency at different times.
25. The highest voting percentage in any general elections has been 62.2 per cent in 1957, the lowest was in 1967 when only 33 per cent cast their vote. In the last general elections in 1999, 59.99 per cent had cast their votes.
26. As the country goes to polls, the Women’s Reservation Bill has been put on the backburner yet again. While only 4.4 per cent of the first Lok Sabha were women, the percentage only doubled to 9.02 per cent by the thirteenth Lok Sabha. Interesting facts of 1998 general eletions:

9. Constituency with largest number of electors: Outer Delhi (NCT of Delhi) 28,80,872 electors 10. Constituency with lowest no. of voters: Lakshadweep 35,716 electors 11. Maximum contestants in a constituency: Ongole (AP) 34 Candidates
12. Minimum Contestants in a constituency: Anand (Gujarat) 2 Candidates
Satara (Maharashtra) 2 Candidates
Nagaland 2 Candidates
Lakshadweep 2 Candidates
13. Paper used for printing of ballot paper: 7,700 Metric Ton
14. Expenditure on conduct of election: Rs. 664 crores (approx)

Interesting facts of 1999 general elections
• 12,688 candidates lost security deposit in 1999

• 667 independents contested in 1957, 73 won. In 1999, only 6 out of 1945 won

• Number of seats lost by BJP by less than 10% of votes polled: 84

• Seats where Congress was second out of 298 seats won by NDA: 201

Interesting facts of 2004 general elections
• Rs 160 crores is the bill political parties have run-up with Prasar Bharti for airtime on DD and AIR

• Election Commission survey says 95% voters prefer EVMs

• 150 million votes to be targeted by the BJP`s campaign via-e-mail and SMS

• Number of EVMs required this election: 10.25 lakhs