Landslide victory of the BJP, winning 325 seats out of the 403, in the UP and in Uttarakhand, the party bagged 57 seats out of the total 70. It has put this party head and shoulders above all other parties, despite its loss in Punjab. Assembly polls 2017 strengthened the BJP, consolidating its position in the Rajya Sabha, where it needs the majority. It also places the party in the driver’s seat, ahead of the Presidential poll in June-July this year. Political pundits opine that Narendra Modi-Amit Shah combo scripted a new narrative in the electoral politics of UP, leaving the opposition in complete disarray. Here’s a report by our Associate Editor, Navodita, exclusively in Different Truths.
With a landslide victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand for the BJP, the big question is that is the government now going to take further steps to curb corruption and focus more on development as that is what the electoral mandate seems to indicate – the caste and class factor is out and development is in.
In Uttar Pradesh, the BJP won with 325 seats, while the SP-Congress was second with only 54 seats and BSP, too, decimated to having just 19 seats. So who is going to be the next Chief Minister of UP? BJP state chief, Keshav Prasad Maurya, in a press conference, gave the full credit for the victory to PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. He said, “BJP could score a historic win only because of the leadership and guidance of Narendra Modi and Amit Shahji.”
In Uttarakhand, too, BJP left its political rivals far behind taking a lead of 57 seats with the Congress only 
left with 11. In Punjab, however, the Congress has won with 77 seats, and in Goa with 17 seats (where BJP was a close second with 13) and in Manipur with 28 seats where the BJP came second with 21 seats.
Congress lost all the four Assembly seats in Amethi, with BJP bagging three of them including the one contested by Garima Singh, who received 63,912 votes as opposed to her rival Gayatri Prajapati, who received 58,941 votes. It seems Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s decision to quit the Congress worked in her favour, as she won the Lucknow Cantonment seat receiving 95,402 votes that are over 50.8% votes. She registered a significantly high margin defeating SP’s Aparna Yadav. She said, “I was certain about my victory since the beginning but I wanted to outdo my previous performance. I am happy and thankful at the same time.”
In terms of the latest vote share data, as available with the Election Commission, the BJP polled 39.6%, followed by the SP and BSP which polled 22 per cent each. The Congress is seen getting over six per cent votes. The BJP’s rivals – the SP, BSP and the Congress – have all seen their vote shares decline sharply since the 2012 Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh though there is not much change in their vote share when compared to those of the Lok Sabha election in 2014.
It seems the strategy of the Congress to form an alliance with the Samajwadi Party to win Uttar Pradesh has not worked out. While the Congress said the “loss” will be assessed, it defended party leadership saying it could not be judged over a short span. “Yes, UP is a bad loss, it hurts…I agree that, in UP, we need fundamental restructuring thinking for the Congress as a whole. These have to be hard, tough decisions about strategy,” said Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Moreover, the plans of Prashant Kishore, the master-poll strategist for Congress seem to have been dashed to the ground. Questions are being raised about Rahul Gandhi’s leadership once again who spearheaded an intense campaign in UP.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plans to win two more states has fallen flat, with his AAP winning zero seats in Goa and finishing second in Punjab with only 22 seats, four more than the BJP-Akali Dal alliance at 18.
UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party was relaxed as he accepted defeat and said he hoped the next government does better. He said his partnership with the Congress would continue.
The BJP’s party workers are all in high spirits with the victory as what Prannoy Roy calls ‘a mega election in decades’. Amit Shah said the BJP will hold a reception for the PM at the party’s office in Delhi, on Sunday evening, after which its top decision makers, the parliamentary board will meet to decide on Chief Ministers. “We will form government in four states – UP, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur,” he said.
These elections were also crucial as the BJP desperately sought a majority in the Rajya Sabha ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections and with the Presidential elections coming up in June-July. Now with an absolute majority in the state, BJP seems content with an inch closer to having a majority even in the Rajya Sabha.
©Navodita Pande
Photos from the internet.
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