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BJP, allies lose in 278 Vidhan Sabha seats in UP

An assembly segment-wise analysis of the votes bagged by political parties in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh would mean that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies tasted defeat in 278 Vidhan Sabha constituencies.

In other words, going by pure statistics, the parties in the present Kalyan Singh government have won only 137 of the 425 Vidhan Sabha seats if the number of votes polled for them in this Lok Sabha elections was the lone consideration.

Of this 137, a majority, 124 seats, has gone to the BJP.

The BJP and its allies had this time contested 83 of the 85 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. The nomination papers of BJP candidate in Sultanpur was rejected while in Pilibhit, the party had chosen to support Maneka Gandhi, an independent candidate.

The BJP had 77 candidates going to the voters in 385 assembly segments. Yet, just 124 segments fetched more votes to the ruling party than the opposition candidates. In the remaining 261 segments they did not get votes enough to win.

Of the four Loktantrik Congress candidates who went into the electoral arena, two won. The party is an ally in the state government. This saw the party candidates getting more votes than all others in 11 assembly segments.

The Samata Party fielded two candidates on the Janata Dal-U symbol. Both of them lost, although they polled more votes than the opposition candidates in six Vidhan Sabha segments. In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and its supporting Samata Party had won in 258 assembly segments.

In this elections, the Samajwadi Party fielded candidates from 84 seats, 26 of these were voted to the Lok Sabha. Translated to Vidhan Sabha constituencies, they contested in 420 assembly segments and finished first in 129.

In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, the SP had won 20 seats, which was 114 Vidhan Sabha segments. Thus, compared to the last elections, the party improved its popular base by 15 Vidhan Sabha segments.

The 1999 elections proved to be a boon for the Bahujan Samaj Party also when the number of its MPs from the state increased from four to 14. The party had fielded its candidates from all the 85 seats. Considering that it contested from 425 assembly segments, the party ended up first in 87 Vidhan Sabha seats. This is 55 segments more than what the party got in the last Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress party benefited the most in this Lok Sabha election. The party had not sent any representative to the Lok Sabha from the state in the last elections. This time it fielded 78 candidates along with its supporting party, the Rashtriya LOK Dal fielding seven. Congress candidates polled more votes than their opponents in 44 Vidhan Sabha segments while the RLD got the most number of votes in 14 segments. In the last elections, it had won in only seven Vidhan Sabha segments, while the RLD had fought the last elections on the symbol of Bharatiya Kisan Kamgar Party and won in merely two Vidhan Sabha constituencies.

The Samajwadi Janata Party of Chandra Shekhar had contested from only two seats, and only Chandra Shekhar won from Ballia. This time the SJP candidates got more votes only in three Vidhan Sabha segments. Compared to this, it had been successful in five assembly segments in 1998.

Apna Dal Party fielded its candidates in 45 Lok Sabha constituencies. Although it failed to make it to the Lok Sabha, its candidates managed to win more votes than any other candidate in three Vidhan Sabha segments.

UNI

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