Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav won from their constituencies, Gorakhpur Urban and Karhal respectively. While the BJP will go on to form the government, the Samajwadi Party has gained in the number of seats this time even as the counting of votes is in progress. Adityanath won the seat with 1,01,000 votes while Akhilesh recorded a win by a huge margin of 61,000 votes.
CM Yogi had earlier expressed confidence of winning over 300 seats, even as opposition’s tried hard to latch onto the farmers protest and highlight the Jat anger in the western belt. But BJP has trumped all. Both Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress, once key players in the state, have been reduced to single digits. Tying up with smaller parties seem to have gone wrong for Akhilesh Yadav as the party is struggling to even cross 150 seats. However, the SP has managed to finish second.
Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state that sends maximum number of members to Parliament. With over 15 crore voters, Uttar Pradesh accounts for 80 of the Lok Sabha’s 543 seats, and a 403-member Assembly, thus making it India’s most politically significant state amid the election results today.
UP, since January 25, 1950 when the United Provinces was renamed as Uttar Pradesh, has given India a legion of stalwarts, chief ministers, and prime ministers through its 17 Assembly elections. Not to forget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was once Gujarat’s chief minister, also chose Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi as his Lok Sabha constituency.
Of the 21 CMs that the state has chosen till now, only Yogi Adityanath, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati have completed a full five-year term, giving a glimpse of the intense volatility of politics in the state.
