2018 elections in India

According to the Constitution of India, elections should take place to the parliament and state legislative assemblies every five years, unless an emergency is under operation. Further, any vacancy caused by death or resignation must be filled through an election within six months of occurrence of such vacancy. The elections to the lower houses (in Parliament and in the states) use first past the post system - the candidate with a plurality of the votes wins the election.

Elections to one-third of the seats of the upper house of the Parliament - the Rajya Sabha are conducted every two years. The members of the upper house are elected indirectly by the state legislative assemblies on the basis of proportional representation. Members to the state legislative councils (in states which have an upper house) are elected indirectly through local bodies.[2]

All the elections at the central and state level are conducted by the Election Commission of India while local body elections are conducted by state election commissions.[3]

4 parliamentary seats were contested on 28 May 2018.[13][14] The counting of votes took place on May 31.[13][15] This election saw the ruling BJP party lose their majority in the lower house of the Indian Parliament[16]

November

3 parliamentary seats had been contested on 3 November 2018 in Karnataka. Results were declared on 6 November 2018.

Elections were held in Tripura on 18 February 2018 in 59 out of 60 constituencies of the Legislative Assembly.[18] The Left Front led by Manik Sarkar sought re-election, having governed Tripura since the 1998 election. The region in general had been under the political control of the Communist Party for 25 years prior to the election, leading to the region being dubbed a "red holdout".[19] The incumbent Left Front government was defeated after 25 years of office, with the Bharatiya Janata Party and Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura winning a large majority of seats. The Indian National Congress, which was the second largest party in the 2013 election, lost all its seats and most of its vote share.

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	999,093	43.0		36	36
	Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM)	992,575	42.7		16	33
	Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT)	173,603	7.5		8	8
	Indian National Congress (INC)	41,325	1.8		0	10
	Communist Party of India (CPI)	19,352	0.8		0	1
	Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)	17,568	0.8		0
	Indigenous Nationalist Party of Twipra (INPT)	16,255	0.7		0
	All India Forward Bloc (AIFB)	13,115	0.6		0
	All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)	6,989	0.3		0
	Independents (IND)				0
	Other parties and coalitions				0
	None of the Above (NOTA)
Vacant seat					1	1
Total			100.00		60	±0

Elections were held in Meghalaya on 27 February 2018 to elect 59 of 60 members to the Legislative Assembly. The incumbent Indian National Congress government controlled the state in a coalition with smaller parties prior to the election, and sought to retain office. The elections resulted in a hung assembly with no single party or alliance getting the requisite majority of 31 seats in the Vidhan Sabha.[20] Conrad Sangma, leader of the National People's Party, announced that he would form a government with the support of the United Democratic Party and other regional parties.[21][22] He was sworn in as the Chief Minister, along with eleven other ministers.[23]

Party		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Contested	Won	+/−
	Indian National Congress (INC)	447,472	28.5		59	21	8
	National People's Party (NPP)	323,500	20.6		52	19	17
	United Democratic Party (UDP)	182,491	11.6		27	6	2
	Independents (IND)	170,249	10.8			3	10
	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	151,217	9.6		47	2	2
	People's Democratic Front (PDF)	128,413	8.2		8	4	4
	Hill State People's Democratic Party (HSPDP)	84,011	5.3		15	2	1
	Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)	25,247	1.6		6	1	1
	Garo National Council (GNC)	21,679	1.4		7	0	1
	Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM)	14,164	0.9		6	1	1
	All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)	5,544	0.4			0
	None of the Above (NOTA)	14,631	0.9
Vacant seat						1	1
Total			100.00		297	60	±0

Elections were held in Nagaland on 27 February 2018 in 59 out of 60 constituencies of the Legislative Assembly. The scheduled election in Northern Angami II constituency did not take place as only incumbent MLA Neiphiu Rio was nominated and was therefore declared elected unopposed.[24][25] The ruling Naga People's Front was challenged by the newly established Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP), an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The NDPP and its allies won a majority, with former Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio returning to government.

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Candidates	Won	+/−
	Nagaland People's Front (NPF)	389,912	38.8		58	26	12
	Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP)	253,090	25.2		40	18	18
	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	153,864	15.3		20	12	11
	National People's Party (NPP)	69,506	6.9		25	2	2
	Janata Dal (United) (JD(U))	45,089	4.5		13	1
	Independents (IND)	43,008	4.3		11	1	7
	Indian National Congress (INC)	20,752	2.1		18	0	8
	Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)	10,693	1.1		6	0	4
	Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)	7,491	0.7		3	0
	Lok Janshakti Party (LJP)	2,765	0.3		2	0
	None of the Above (NOTA)
Total			100.00		196	60	±0

Elections were held in Karnataka on 12 May 2018 in 222 out of 224 constituencies of the Legislative Assembly. The incumbent Indian National Congress (INC) was seeking re-election, having governed the state since elections in 2013.[26] The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) sought to regain office. The election led to a hung assembly, with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as the single largest party, with 104 seats, but failing to win a majority of seats and popular votes. The Indian National Congress (INC) won the popular vote.[27] Following the election, B. S. Yeddyurappa was appointed Chief Minister and tasked with forming a minority BJP government, but resigned two days later on being unable to prove majority in the assembly. Thereafter the INC and JD(S) which had entered into a post-poll agreement formed a majority coalition government. H.D. Kumaraswamy of Janata Dal (Secular) was subsequently appointed Chief Minister.

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	1,31,85,384	36.2	16.3	104	64
	Indian National Congress (INC)	1,39,32,069	38.0	1.4	80	44
	Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS)	66,66,307	18.3	1.9	37	3
	Independents (IND)	14,37,045	3.9	3.5	1	8
	Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)	1,08,592	0.3		1	1
	Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP)	74,229	0.2		1	1
	Other parties and candidates	6,83,632	2.2		0	13
	None of the Above (NOTA)	3,22,841	0.9
Total			100.00		224	±0

The seat and vote share was as follows:[28][29]

Parties and coalitions		Popular vote			Seats
		Votes	%	±pp	Won	+/−
	Indian National Congress	1,39,35,201	39.3%	6.23	100	79
	Bharatiya Janata Party	1,37,57,502	38.8%	6.37	73	92
	Bahujan Samaj Party	14,10,995	4.0%	0.63	6	3
	Independents	33,72,206	9.5%	1.29	13	6
	Rashtriya Loktantrik Party	8,56,038	2.4%	New	3	New
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	4,34,210	1.2%	0.33	2	2
	Bharatiya Tribal Party	2,55,100	0.7%	New	2	New
	Rashtriya Lok Dal	1,16,320	0.3%	0.29	1	1
	Other parties and candidates (OTH)	8,87,317	2.5%	0.00	0	0
	None of the Above	4,67,781	1.3%
Total		3,54,92,670	100.00		199	±0

Panchayat elections and municipal elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir in 2018 from October 8 till December 11.[30] The last time Panchayat elections were held in the state were in 2011 and the last time municipal elections were held were in 2005.[31][32]

On 18 November, elections to the local bodies were held in Uttarakhand.

• 2018 Assam panchayat election[33]

• 2018 West Bengal local elections[34]