When Mayawati decided to contest alone without joining the NDA or the INDIA bloc, political analysts hinted that her party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) would draw a blank in the state. And that reflected in the election results.
However, hidden in the number game is the truth about what helped BJP save its face in Uttar Pradesh. Though BSP failed to bag even a single constituency, the party managed to garner 9.39 per cent votes. Moreover, this amounts to more votes than the victory margins of parties in the NDA fold. These include 14 BJP seats and one each by it allies Apna Dal (Soneylal) and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
Most of these BJP constituencies are in western UP, including Aligarh, Amroha, Farrukhabad, Fatehpur Sikri, Shahjahanpur and Meerut. In Aligarh, BJP defeated SP by 15,647 votes while BSP vote share amounted to 1.23 lakh. Amroha pegged BJP winning margin against Congress at 28,670 votes compared to BSP's 1.64 lakh vote share. BSP garnered 45,390 votes in Farrukhabad, where close contest with SP saw BJP narrowly winning by just 2,678 votes.
In Fatehpur Sikri, BJP beat Congress by 43,405 votes while BSP vote share was 1.2 lakh votes. Shahjahanpur saw BSP bagging 91,710 votes while the BJP victory margin was 55,379 votes. BJP trounced SP in Meerut with a mere 10,585 votes while the vote share of Mayawati's party was 87,025 votes
Bijnor, which is also in the Paschim Pradesh region, saw the BJP ally RLD beating SP by 37,508 votes while BSP vote share was a whopping 2.18 lakh votes.
In the Awadh region, four BJP constituencies -- Misrikh, Unnao, Hardoi and Akbarpur -- saw the BSP's vote share surpassing BJP's winning margin. Mayawati's party got 1.11 lakh votes in Misrikh compared to BJP's victory margin of 33,406 votes against SP.
Unnao saw BJP defeating SP by 55,379 votes while BSP claimed 72,527 votes. In Hardoi, BSP won a humongous 1.22 lakh votes compared to BJP's winning votes of 27,856 against SP. BJP scored 44,345 votes against SP in Akbarpur compared to 73,140 votes won by BSP.
In Purvanchal region, BJP seats Bansgaon, Phulpur, Bhadohi and Deoria witnessed the same trend. In Bansgaon, BJP narrowly saved its face after winning by 3,150 votes against Congress while BSP bagged 64,750 votes. Phulpur also saw the saffron party in a tight contest against SP, winning by 4,332 votes while BSP garnered 82,586 votes.
In Bhadohi, TMC was the runner-up losing to BJP by 44,072 votes while BSP vote share was 1.55 lakh. Deoria saw BSP winning 45,564 votes in total while BP defeated Congress by 34,842 votes.
Mirzapur seat, which also falls in the Purvanchal region, was won by BJP ally Apna Dal (Soneylal), which beat SP by 37,810 votes compared to the 1.44 lakh votes won by BSP.
The SP, meanwhile, gave more seats to non-Yadav OBCs (27), Dalits (11) and upper castes (11) than Yadavs (5) and Muslims (4). The five Yadav candidates fielded by SP are family members of Akhilesh Yadav but this number is far less that 10 Yadav candidates in 2019 and 12 in 2014.
