UP poll results: BJP's comprehensive win in Assembly elections finally breaks 36-year-old jinx

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) sweeping victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls eventually broke a 36-year-old jinx of the incumbent government being re-elected in the state.

The incumbent UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath guided the BJP to poll win, riding a high decibel poll campaign, with thrust on the development agenda along with well-being schemes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the BJP’s campaign from the start, initially by supporting the Chief Minister and later by leading an ardent campaign in UP.

As maintained by the recent data of the Election Commission of India (ECI)on the trends of vote counting, the BJP has surpassed the majority mark of 202 Assembly seats, while leading on 122 seats and Congress leading only in one seat.

Furthermore, the election results had also anticipated that Yogi Adityanath is on the course to retain power in UP for the second time.

In the state of UP, the Indian National Congress had a stronghold in the 80s as the party stayed in power from 1980-88. However, Uttar Pradesh saw political instability after 1988 with several parties, which included Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the BJP was in control of the state in 1990s.

However, In 2000 BJP again came to power by forming an alliance with the BSP and Rajnath Singh was sworn in as the Chief Minister. In a major upset , the BJP were not able to hold its government for a year as the BSP took back the support.

Since then, the Bharatiya janata Party couldn’t regain power, and the state was ruled by the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati led BSP till 2017.

The BJP had won 2017 UP elections, winning over 300 seats and Yogi Adityanath was sworn in as the CM.

Uttar Pradesh witnessed a multi-cornered contest with the BJP, SP, Congress and the BSP competing for the mandate.

In Uttar Pradesh, the parties held intensive election campaigns, but BJP and SP collected most of the eyeballs. Congress also hit the ground hard,
with Priyanka Gandhi’s vivacious campaigns.

The BJP fielded it top leaders, which included Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, in the campaigning to increase their support base.

In the time of the campaign, Adityanath, who was in the fray from Gorakhpur Urban seat, got a new name ‘Baba Buldozer’.
"Bulldozer" is a reference to the action taken by the Yogi government to vacate illegally occupied land and properties using the Bulldozer.

Furthermore, PM Modi himself was very much involved in the campaigning for the UP polls and ensured that there was no factionalism in the party.

The Prime Minister heaped praises on Yogi Adityanath for the development works done in the state and coined a new slogan on "UP plus Yogi bahut hai upyogi (UP plus Yogi is very useful)".

PM Modi held rallies in Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Bahraich, Amethi, and a massive roadshow in Varanasi which was attended by a huge crowd.

On the contrary, Samajwadi Party also held a lot of campaigns to challenge the UP government whereas Priyanka Gandhi also ran a electoral campaign and gave 40 per cent seats to women.

[With ANI inputs]

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