SP-Cong hit BJP hard in UP, bag 43 LS seats; ruling party gets 36

Lucknow, Jun 4 (PTI) The BJP-led NDA suffered a jolt in Uttar Pradesh, where it won just 36 seats as against the INDIA bloc which bagged 43 — a significant contribution to the overall tally of the opposition alliance.

In the 2019 general elections, the ruling BJP had won 62 seats — ally Apna Dal (S) got another two — out of the 80 in the country’s most populous state.

Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, which leads the INDIA bloc in UP, alone got 37 seats this time, becoming the single largest party in the politically crucial state. The BJP managed to win just 33 seats.

SP ally Congress won six seats, including Amethi and Rae Bareli, in the elections. In the NDA, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) won two seats while Anupriya Patel-led Apna Dal (S) got one.

The BJP suffered losses despite a high-octane campaign in the state led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who won from his Varanasi constituency by a margin of over 1,52,000 votes.

SP chief Yadav, in a post on X, said that UP has once again shown a new path to the country. He said it was a victory for saving the Constitution and democracy and ensuring social justice.

The former chief minister, who won from the Kannauj seat, also said that it was a victory against the “divisive” politics. This was a victory of the INDIA coalition and PDA (Pichada, Dalit and Alpasankhyak) unity, he added.

While Chandrasekhar Azad-led Aazad Samaj Party won one seat, the BSP of Mayawati drew a blank in the elections.

Om Prakash Rajbhar-led SBSP and Sanjay Nishad could not do much for the BJP and the two outfits who fought from one seat each lost the elections.

Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav won from Mainpuri.

Gaining strength in partnership with the SP, the Congress trounced Union minister Smriti Irani in Amethi, while Rahul Gandhi won Rae Bareli. Both seats are considered Congress pocket boroughs.

The BJP lost at Ayodhya despite a grand temple consecrated in the religious place in January this year.

The BJP had launched a vitriolic attack against the SP and the Congress for declining Ram temple consecration invitation.

Apart from PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had spent considerable time addressing poll meetings in UP.

The BJP even lost Sultanpur seat represented by Maneka Gandhi and Lakhimpur Kheri from where Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni was in the fray.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh won from the Lucknow seat he has been representing since 2014.

BJP’s Ravi Kishan won Gorakhpur seat, ‘karmabhoomi’ of Adityanath who represented it for five times in the past.

Actors Hema Malini and Arun Govil, who played lord Ram in the “Ramayan” TV serial, emerged victorious in Mathura and Meerut, respectively.