Uttar Pradesh

Overzealous BJP workers in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district crushed a row of bicycles with a bulldozer to celebrate their party's success in the state's Assembly polls. While the bicycle is the Samajwadi Party (SP) symbol, the bulldozer had become synonymous with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's campaign against the mafia.

The Etawah assembly seat has been won by the BJP's Sarita while Jaiveer Singh of the BJP has won the Mainpuri assembly seat. In Etah, it is again the BJP which has won the seat while Firozabad - which is the bastion of Prof Ram Gopal Yadav - has been won by the BJP's Manish Asija. Kannauj, that was said to be the strongest Samajwadi area, has also been wrested by first timer and former IPS officer Aseem Arun.

“We have shown that the BJP's seats can be reduced. The fall for the BJP will continue. Half of the misunderstanding has gone, the other half will go too,” the SP chief wrote on twitter. He further said that his party increased its vote-share by 1.5 times and the assembly seats by 2.5 times and thanked the people of the state who voted for him. “Our struggle for public welfare will continue,” he further wrote.

In a seemingly polarised electoral atmosphere that saw a straight contest between the ruling BJP and Samajwadi Party (SP), voters have sent 36 Muslim candidates to the 18th Uttar Pradesh Assembly, two more than the previous Assembly.

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections that concluded on Thursday, banked largely on the consolidation of OBC leaders in almost all the major political parties. However, the poll results have shown up shocking results as a number of prominent OBC leaders have lost their seats.

The Prime Minister, while addressing the party cadre at the BJP headquarters here, came down heavily on people, who try to stop action against the corrupt. "There has been a conspiracy to stop action against corruption. Some people have the uncanny tendency of filing up their own treasure/chests. People of India are expecting from us (BJP) that our honest government will punish the corrupt. Should we not rise up to this expectation of the common people," Modi asked

The biggest casualty was Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya who lost Sirathu to his Samajwadi Party rival, Pallavi Patel, by a margin of 7,337 votes. Among others who lost the polls this time were Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, and Rural Development who was defeated by Samajwadi Party's Jai Prakash Anchal from Bairia constituency by 12,951 votes

The state voters have been solidly behind the BJP -- first in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, then in the 2017 Assembly elections, the 2019 parliamentary elections and now again in the 2022 Assembly polls. Despite all the votes the BJP has been able to get, it may be due to the Hindutva factor, however laced with social schemes of ration distribution during pandemic and the direct cash transfers to the farmers.

The Hyderabad MP, whose party contested 100 Assembly seats but drew a blank, was obviously referring to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's remark of "80 per cent versus 20 per cent". Owaisi said though the results were not to the party's expectations, it would continue to work in the state.

The Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance came a cropper in western UP, upsetting all calculations. According to sources, one of the main reasons for the below expectation performance of the alliance in an area that was the focal point of the famers' agitation against the ruling BJP, was faulty candidate selection and swapping of candidates.