Methodology

Sources

Assembly and Lok Sabha results come from the statistical reports of the Election Commission of India (ECI). The “Detailed Results” give every candidate's votes. The “Constituency Data Summary” gives the number of electors, votes polled, turnout, valid votes and NOTA. Some reports exist only as PDF files (Andhra Pradesh 2014 and Telangana 2018). For these, the text is extracted, and 20 constituencies per election are checked by hand against the printed pages. By-election results come from ECI's bye-election index cards. Current members come from the official Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha websites.

Checks

Every published file passes an automated check. It confirms the expected number of constituencies (175, 119, 25 and 17), exactly one winner per constituency (the candidate with the most votes), and a margin equal to the winner's votes minus the runner-up's. It also confirms that candidates' votes add up to ECI's valid votes, that vote shares and NOTA add up to 100%, that turnout equals votes polled divided by electors, and that seat totals and party votes match ECI's own party tables. When two ECI tables disagree by a few votes, the difference is recorded, not smoothed over.

Vote shares

Vote shares are calculated over all votes for candidates plus NOTA. This is the same basis ECI uses for each candidate's percentage. ECI's “valid votes” figure does not include NOTA.

The 2014 elections

The 2014 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections were held before Andhra Pradesh was divided on 2 June 2014. ECI reports them under the undivided state (294 Assembly and 42 Lok Sabha constituencies). A constituency is placed in today's Andhra Pradesh or Telangana only if its name matches the official list for that state. Lok Sabha seats are also checked against the Assembly constituencies they contain.

Names and spellings

Older reports sometimes spell a constituency name differently. A spelling is accepted only if it matches the official list once capital letters and punctuation are ignored, or if it appears in a short, reviewed list of known variants, each with its reason. Candidate names are shown as ECI prints them, with a capital letter at the start of each word. Telugu names are shown only when an official Telugu-language source provides them. They are never machine-translated. Names follow the official gazette as printed, including its variations. Two seats can share one official name, so every seat is shown with its number, and with SC or ST where it is reserved.

Not shown

Districts are not shown until current official district lists are added. Candidates' declared assets, criminal cases and education are not shown yet. Instead, each candidate links to the ECI affidavit portal. Criminal cases, when shown, are cases declared in affidavits, not convictions.

Alliances

The Election Commission records results by party only. The alliance view groups parties into the pre-poll alliances reported in the news, with each report linked, and only after checking that the seats each party contested match the reported seat sharing. An alliance's seats and vote share are the sum of its parties' official results. Support given from outside, without shared seats, is described in a note, not counted.

Maps

Constituency boundaries come from the Data{Meet} Community Maps Project. They are approximate and are not exact survey boundaries.

Names on the map

When there is not room for every name, the map chooses which names to show by a fixed, neutral order. First comes the seat you selected, pointed at or searched for, or the seat in the middle of a closer view. Then come state names, then Lok Sabha names, then Assembly names. Within each group, larger seats by area come first, then the lower seat number. A name is hidden only when it would overlap a name earlier in this order. The order never depends on a party, a result, a margin or anything political.