India is a country that is obsessed with elections. We are a relatively new Democracy and we love to talk about politics. Only cricket is the other thing that can come that close to being a universal conversation opener in India.
For the newer generation it might be baffling to see that whenever there are elections around the corner, all the news channels forget every other news that might be happening in the world in lieu of who will be the next PM or CM. Let me tell you guys something, the situation was the same before the television as well.
People would talk about it incessantly and discuss all the possibilities. People would enjoy a good evening tea thinking who should win, who will win and what are all the impacts on their lives. In a way, it is the most lovable sports of the country; the mother of all games.
And like all games, Politics is all about numbers and statistics. Tons of data of the past, data about each party, each candidate and what not. Who won, by what margin and of course what was the losers’ situation in the scenario. Were they able to save the money deposited or not.
Till now, internet has not been very active in aggregation of this data. It is very active in making fun of the politicians- Check out Facebook and you will find it. But, for a true enthusiast internet has not been of much help. Of course, a person with enough zeal might be able to find the data online but I find it easier to ask any knowledgeable person of a particular constituency. His knowledge might be more comprehensive and certainly with more stats.
Not anymore! Indiavotes is a site that wants to change it all. Created by NiTi Digital, Indiavotes.com is a site that has the raw data for all the Lok Sabha elections since 1952 and all the state elections since 1977.
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The data is easily searchable and can be found simply by choosing the factors like Year, State, Constituency name, Candidate name and Party name. Not all options are compulsory and the data will be more particular according to the depth of parameters chosen. There is a column for recent elections that have happened and one can directly have a look at them.
The data is comprehensive and includes graphs that are always a delight. On choosing a very basic option set of just the year in Lok Sabha elections the whole set of each constituency was given with who won and from which party the person was and the margins and the percentage margin.
Also included is a particular factor that I believe is as important among others- Turnout. Now, I do not know how much you believe the importance of this particular factor but I believe that turnout is often responsible for the results. After all it is not who supports a party but who went to vote that counts.
This site is a work in progress with many more fields that they want to add and corrections that they are making. That will remain true always for any data collecting site – It is an ongoing process after all. The site in itself is amazing and should be checked out by any politically inclined person.
Personally, I have already bookmarked this site for my reference, especially with some high voltage elections coming up.
To sum up in one line… Indiavotes.com is to politics, what cricinfo.com is to Cricket.
