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Mandate

minister Smriti Irani with a margin of Lal Nehru who had defeated Hindu
over 40,000 votes. ideologue Prabhu Dutt Brahmchari of
The results of the elections have Hindu Mahasabha.
not only decimated the power of caste Reacting over the setback in by-
politics but have also put a question election, the BJP president Amit Shah
mark on the future of the alliance. The told the media that it would now fight
results clearly indicated that Sama- to secure half the votes in UP. It had
jwadi Party and Bahujan Samajwadi estimated that the alliance could get
Party have not been able to transfer around 40 percent votes, margin-
their votes to each other and hostile ally more than the saffron party’s 2014
social equations between Dalits and tally. His strategy contained enormous
OBCs have prevailed over politics. The damage in Uttar Pradesh and recov-
BSP has benefited from the alliance ered its anticipated loss from West
by ensuring its better presence in the Bengal by doing aggressive campaign-
Lok Sabha as it could not win even a ing. BJP occupied void of central op-
single seat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The position party in West Bengal where
Samajwadi Party stood major loser in Trinmool Congress marginalized con-
the political gamble. The caste chem- gress and Communist Party (Marxist)
istry in Uttar Pradesh has flatly failed CPM.
to fetch dividends for SP-BSP-RLD alli- BJP stalwarts and Union Home
ance as RLD failed to win even a single Minister Raj Nath Singh recorded
seat. resounding victory from Lucknow
In this election the UP chief minis- parliamentary seat where Maha-
ter Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Ke- gathbandhan candidate Poonam
shav Mourya regained their lost pres- Sinha and congress nominee Pramod
tige as in the last year by-elections Krishnan challenged him. He secured
they were humiliated losing in their lead of 3.47 lakhs votes and got 56.7
own home turf to SP-BSP alliance con- percent votes. State’s cabinet minis-
solidating Dalit, OBC’s and Muslims. In ter Rita Bahuguna Joshi and S.P. Singh
2019 BJP candidate and Bhojpuri film Baghel also won from Allahabad and
actor Ravi Kishan won with record Agra but another minister Mukut Bi-
vote share of 60.54 percent in Gorakh- hari Verma lost election from Ambed-
pur and Keshari Devi Patel with 55.68 kar Nagar. BJP Union Ministers San-
fervor of nationalism to overcome percent in Phulpur. Phulpur used tosh Kumar Gangwar (Barelli), Gen.
caste challenges when he countered, to be parliamentary constituency of V.K. Singh (Ghaziabad), Dr. Mahesh
“My caste is the caste of the poor.” Be- first prime minister Pundit Jawahar Sharma (Noida), Maneka Sanjay Gan-
sides, Yogi Adityanath further thawed dhi (Sultanpur) and Anupriya Patel of
caste lines with his aggressive Hindu- Apna Dal Anupriya Patel (Mirzapur)
tva plank. It badly trampled caste bar- also won the elections.
riers and improved its vote share from The Samajwadi Party Despite blaming EVM glitches and
42.63 to 49.56 percent as compared to came as a major loser hacking the Bahujan Samaj Party was
2014 elections even then BJP suffered a big gainer in eastern UP where it
loss of nine seats in the state despite in the political gamble. wrested ten seats including four pres-
“Modi tsunami.” The caste chemistry tigious seats of eastern UP— Ghazipur,
In 2014, party won 71 seats but this Lalganj, Jaunpur, and Ghosi— from the
time it just secured 62 seats. BJP ally in Uttar Pradesh has BJP. Prominent BJP minister Manoj
Apna Dal maintained to win its two flatly failed to fetch Sinha was a labourious and trusted
seats. Despite overall increase of 49.5 lieutenant of PM Modi and his name
percent vote share, BJP secured more dividends for SP-BSP- was taking rounds for the chief minis-
than 50 percent votes on most of the ter ship of the state in 2017. Surprising-
seats it won. The congress president RLD alliance as RLD ly this time he badly lost the election
Rahul Gandhi suffered humiliating failed to win even a by a margin of 1,19,000 votes. Mafia
and unprecedented defeat in his fam- don Mokhtar Ansari’s brother Afzal
ily bastion Amethi at the hand of union single seat Ansari defeated him who was field

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