NEW DELHI: After sealing its phenomenal electoral victory with a 300-plus win, the BJP on Friday began discussing the process of government formation while the Congress dealt with the fallout of defeat with a spate of resignations from its state leaders.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP to a stunning and historic victory in the Lok Sabha battle, with the ruling party itself set to win 303 seats in a marked improvement over its 2014 showing that left the opposition dazed and demoralized. The BJP-led NDA end up with a tally of 352 seats.

With the BJP riding a Modi wave that took it past its 2014 tally of 282, the opposition was left way behind with the Congress winning only 52 seats, two less than it needs for a Leader of Opposition post in the lower house and marginally more than the 44 it got in the last general elections.

Such was the force of the BJP wave that even Congress President Rahul Gandhi lost in his bastion of Amethi to Smriti Irani, but in consolation prize won the Wayanad seat in Kerala.

An estimated 67.11 per cent of the 90.99 crore electors had cast their vote in the seven phase elections.This is the highest ever-voter turnout in Indian parliamentarian elections.

10 things to know about Lok Sabha Election Results 2019

1: After Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Narendra Modi is the third prime minister of the country who has been able to retain power for a second term with full majority in Lok Sabha.

2: The BJP has seen its vote share soar past 50 per cent in at least 13 states and Union territories, a feat which the rival Congress could manage only in Puducherry. The saffron party has got close to 50 per cent in Uttar Pradesh and even higher in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Delhi, Chandigarh and Arunachal Pradesh.

3: In a huge setback to the Congress, veteran party leader Mallikarjun Karge was defeated by BJP's Umesh Jadhav in Gulbarga by a margin of 95,452 votes. Popularly known as "solillada Saradara", (a leader without defeat), this was the first electoral loss in Kharge's political life spanning several decades.

3: The highest-ever number of women have been elected in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Out of 542 MPs who will take oath as members of the lower house in the next few days, 78 are women with Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal leading at 11 each.

4: A total of 197 sitting MPs, including 27 women parliamentarians, from the 2014 Lok Sabha polls have managed to retain their seats this general election.

5: The number of Muslim MPs in the Lok Sabha has increased to a decade high of 27, up from 23 last time, with a dozen of them winning from Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal even as none of the six Muslim candidates fielded by BJP tasted victory.

6: The Congress has drawn a blank in 18 states and Union Territories -- an indicator of its decimation in the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress has been completely routed in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadar and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Delhi, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand.

7: The BJP has won 61 of 65 Lok Sabha seats in the three Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan that the Congress won in the Assembly polls barely five months ago.

8: Four independent candidates have made it to the Lok Sabha this time compared to three during the previous general elections in 2014. The highest number of winning independent candidates was seen in 1957, when they bagged 42 seats, followed by 37 in 1952. Independent candidates won 20 seats in 1962 elections, 35 in 1967, 14 in 1971 and 12 seats in 1989. In all the rest 10 Lok Sabha elections, they could not cross single digits. The lowest count was observed in 1991 when only one had won out of total 5,514 independent candidates.

9: Tirong Aboh, the National Peoples Party (NPP) candidate who was gunned down by suspected NSCN militants, has retained the Khonsa West assembly constituency in Arunachal Pradesh.

10: Bihar saw about 8.17 lakh voters opting for the None of The Above (NOTA) option - the highest in the country - while exercising their franchise in the 17th Lok Sabha polls.