How do votes become seats?

In Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly constituency elections, first-past-the-post awards the seat to the candidate with the highest number of votes in that constituency. The winner does not have to receive more than half the votes. NCERT explains this distinction in its chapter on election and representation. 1

A hypothetical constituency

Imagine three candidates receive 40,000, 35,000 and 25,000 votes. The first candidate wins the seat with 40% of the 100,000 votes in this simplified example.

The remaining 60% did not vote for that candidate. It would still be wrong to assume those voters all wanted the same alternative. The result tells you which candidate won under the rule, not how every voter would rank every other candidate.

Vote share is not seat share

Seats are won constituency by constituency. Two parties can have similar total vote shares but different seat totals if their support is distributed differently. A party's votes in constituencies it loses do not automatically produce compensating Lok Sabha seats elsewhere. 1

To inspect an election result, use both measures and label them. Ask whether a reported percentage concerns valid votes for candidates, all votes counted under a particular table's definition, registered electors or seats won. Do not divide one numerator by another dataset's denominator.

Rajya Sabha uses a different arrangement

Elected state representatives in Rajya Sabha are chosen by elected MLAs using proportional representation through the single transferable vote. That is not the same election mechanism as an ordinary Lok Sabha constituency contest. 2

Likewise, do not assume every local election uses an identical ballot or counting arrangement without checking the relevant election authority's rules.

What a result does not tell you

A victory establishes who won the election under the applicable procedure. It does not establish that every promise was endorsed separately, that every policy will work or that a winner is beyond criticism.

When someone claims a result is a “mandate” for a particular decision, ask what part is the reported result and what part is their interpretation. You can accept the result while examining that interpretation.