The electorate of Uttar Pradesh delivered a stunning mandate for stability which has paved the way for the Samajwadi Party (SP) to form the next government in the State. As Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) suffered an ignominious defeat in the 2012 edition of the State Assembly polls the SP, powered by the father-son duo of the former Chief Minister, Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav, stormed to power by winning 224 seats, thus enabling it to form a government on its own.
According to the latest results and trends available from the Election Commission of India, the SP won 224 seats; BSP won 79 and was leading in one; BJP won 47; Congress won 26 and leading in 2; Rashtriya Lok Dal won 9; Nationalist Congress Party won 1 and others, including independents 14.
The highest number of seats won by the Samajwadi Party so far was 143, in the 2002 Assembly polls with a vote share of 25.37 per cent. In 2007, the party got 97 seats with a vote share of 25.43 per cent.
The SP's parliamentary board will meet in Lucknow on Wednesday to decide when to stake claim for forming the next government.
Anti-incumbency
By giving a clear verdict the electorate has delivered a strong message to the political parties that a non-performing government would be voted out and the party best suited to form the next government would be given an absolute mandate for the next five years. This trend started with the BSP winning power in 2007. To that extent the SP has been the biggest gainer of the anti-incumbency against the BSP government, which had been burdened with corruption charges and absence of governance.
Even as the father-son duo effectively shut out the challenge from Ms. Mayawati, both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress were also steamrolled in the process as the Samajwadi juggernaut rolled over the political citadels associated with the BJP and the Congress in all the four corners of the State, like Lucknow, which till now was considered a BJP stronghold and Rae Bareli and Amethi, linked with the Gandhi family. While the BJP can earn solace from the victory of Uma Bharti in Charkhari and Kalraj Mishra in Lucknow East, its overall tally would be behind its 2007 figure of 51.
The 2012 poll results further underlined the SP's emergence in the urban areas and proved it was no longer a party with its base essentially in the rural areas.
With the Samajwadi Party set to regain power in the country's politically most crucial State after a gap of five years, the State unit president and the man largely credited for the party's resounding victory, Akhilesh Yadav, said the parliamentary board would meet here on Wednesday to decide when to stake claim for forming the next government. Mr. Yadav told journalists that there was no dispute over who would be the Chief Minister as the “entire party wants Mr. Mulayam Singh to become the Chief Minister.”
Among the notable winners are the CLP leader, Pramod Tiwari, who won a record ninth term from Rampur Khas, UPCC president, Rita Bahuguna Joshi from Lucknow Cantonment, the SP's ‘Muslim face' Mohammad Azam Khan from Rampur, Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya from Kunda, Nitin Agarwal, the son of SP leader Naresh Agarwal from Hardoi and Ranjit Singh Judeo of the Congress from Garautha.
Underlining the fact that non-performance and the anti-incumbency was a key component in deciding the verdict of the polls, the BJP was worsted in Lucknow, usually associated with the former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Barring Kalraj Mishra, who won from Lucknow East, the BJP's sitting MLAs, Suresh Tiwari (Lucknow Cantt), Suresh Chandra Srivastava (Lucknow West ) and Vidya Sagar (Lucknow Central ) lost to their SP and the Congress rivals. The BJP MP, Lalji Tandon's son, Ashutosh Tandon finished third in Lucknow North.
In Rae Bareli, the SP won Bachrawan, Harchandpur, Sareni and Salon, which clearly exposed Priyanka Gandhi's failure to woo voters in the Gandhi family's backyard.
