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BJP bags just 29 seats, Congress nine, and the SP 24, in UP

The Bharatiya Janata Party had its worst election in Uttar Pradesh since the Ayodhya issue catapulted it to power in the state, with the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party registering their best-ever performance in a general election in UP.

The BJP's loss -- a drop from the 57 seats in the last election to 29 now -- was the Congress gain (up from no seats to ten). Contrary to pre-poll projections, the SP and BSP made good their gains, increasing their tallies to 24 seats and 14 seats respectively (up four and ten seats respectively).

The Loktantrik Congress Party, an ally of the BJP, and the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal, which is in alliance with the Congress, secured two seats each.

Samajwadi Janata Party president and former prime minister Chandra Shekhar (Ballia) and Union Welfare Minister Maneka Gandhi (Pilibhit), an Independent supported by the BJP, retained their seats.

Four national parties -- the CPI, CPI-M, Janata Dal-Secular and Janata Dal-United -- failed to make it to the winning list.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, in his first reaction to the media earlier this evening even as results trickled in, attributed the party's drubbing in the state to ''tactical voting by the Muslims''. The 'anti-BJP' votes were not party-specific but varied constituency-wise and went for the candidate who had the potential to defeat the BJP nominee, the chief minister reasoned.

He said the BJP also had to contend with the 'anti-incumbency' factor which came into play to some extent at many places in the rest of the country.

The BJP fielded 51 sitting members of Parliament of whom only 22 were returned. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee won from Lucknow for the fourth time in a row while Human Resource Development Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi scored a hat-trick from Allahabad.

Three Union ministers from the BJP bjp lost the poll -- Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (Rampur), Som Pal Shastri (Baghpat) and Satyapal Singh Yadav (Shahjahanpur).

Among the other prominent winners were former chief minister Narain Dutt Tiwari (Congress, Nainital), Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP, Kannauj and Sambhal). and BSP leader Mayawati (Akbarpur) and Union Minister Santosh Gangwar (BJP, Bareilly).

Former Union ministers Beni Prasad Verma (SP, Kaiserganj), Ajit Singh (RLD, Baghpat), Balram Singh Yadav (SP, Mainpuri), Captain Satish Sharma (Congress, Rae Bareili) and Salim Sherwani (SP, Badaun) were also among the notable winners.

Other prominent losers included former Union ministers Arif Mohammad Khan (BSP, Bahraich) and Arun Nehru (BJP, Rae Bareili) and former Arunachal Pradesh governor Mata Prasad (Akbarpur).

Congress leaders, who had failed to cobble together a deal with the BSP before the election, are now lamenting their slowness in the matter. But the BSP leaders don't mind.

"It was right on the part of our leaders to have avoided any alliance with anyone; behenji [Mayawati] knew that any alliance with another party would only benefit the ally, not the BSP. We are capable of fighting on our own."

The BJP leaders were clearly shocked. Several leaders, including state BJP chief Raj Nath Singh, were seen rushing to the airport to catch the first flight to New Delhi. But Kalyan Singh stayed within his official bungalow.

Kalyan Singh perhaps had an idea of what was to come when he said at a press conference before the elections, "The responsibility for both success and poll reverses will be borne by all."

But Raj Nath Singh quickly accepted responsibility for the debacle in the state. But party members say infighting within the party played a large role in the defeat. And the party's failure in the election would only worsen the situation, they said.

UNI

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