Samajwadi Party’s Strong Performance : At 9:30 PM, the Samajwadi Party (SP) had won 29 seats and was leading in eight more, totaling a haul of 37 seats—its best-ever performance in a UP Lok Sabha election. The previous best for the SP was 36 seats in 2004, during the Congress-led UPA’s victory.
Akhilesh Yadav, the SP leader, had effectively claimed victory in the family bastion of Kannauj; by 9 PM, he was 1.7 lakh votes ahead of the BJP’s Subrat Pathak. Additionally, his wife, Dimple Yadav, had secured a win from Mainpuri.
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BJP’s Performance
The BJP, meanwhile, had won 28 seats and was leading in five others. Its ally, the Apna Dal (Sonelal), had secured one seat. The Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) also won one seat.
Among the seats the BJP secured was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi. Additionally, Karan Bhushan Singh, son of sex assault accused Brij Bhushan Singh, won from Kaiserganj.
Comparison with Previous Elections
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP secured 62 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh, with its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) picking up another two. In contrast, the Samajwadi Party managed only five seats, while the Congress got just two. The SP had similarly poor showings in 2014 with five seats and 2014 with only five seats, down from 23 in the 2009 poll.
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Congress’s Performance
The Congress, meanwhile, had won six seats, including the significant victories in the Amethi and Rae Bareli strongholds. Kishori Lal and Rahul Gandhi defeated BJP’s Smriti Irani and the BSP’s Thakur Prasad Yadav, respectively.
The Amethi result was particularly noteworthy, with Congress winning by nearly 1.7 lakh votes. This was a major win, reclaiming a seat held by ex-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi from 1981 to 1991. Rahul Gandhi, who contested from Rae Bareli instead of Amethi, finished 3.9 lakh votes ahead of the BJP’s Dinesh Singh.
SP’s Strong Showing in UP
The SP’s performance in this election stands out as it successfully challenged the BJP’s dominance in Uttar Pradesh, something neither the Congress nor the BSP could do in recent national or state polls.
This result, however, did not come as a complete surprise. In the 2022 Assembly election, the BJP was dominant, claiming 255 of the state’s 417 seats. However, the SP was the closest rival, winning 111 seats—a significant increase from previous years, largely driven by the farmers’ protests against the BJP’s policies. This support appears to have carried over into the 2024 election.
UP Lok Sabha Election Results: What Exit Polls Said
UP emerged as the big surprise in this election. Exit polls had generally indicated the BJP would continue its dominance in the state, predicting 68 seats for the BJP and its NDA partners. The INDIA bloc was expected to win just 12 seats. Republic Bharat-Matrize and India Today-Axis My India had even predicted as few as six seats for the opposition bloc.
One exit poll, however, defied the trend. TV5 Telugu predicted a narrow majority for the opposition group with 43 seats.
Formation of the INDIA Bloc
The Samajwadi Party contested as part of the Congress-led INDIA opposition bloc, formed in June last year to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP. The SP fielded 63 candidates and the Congress 17. This seat-sharing agreement was significant as it was the first concrete arrangement within the INDIA bloc, coming after several failed negotiations in other states and a particularly contentious breakdown in talks between the Congress and the Trinamool in Bengal.
Conclusion
The 2024 Lok Sabha election results indicate a significant shift in the political landscape of Uttar Pradesh, with the Samajwadi Party leading a strong charge against the BJP. This election marks the SP’s best performance in a Lok Sabha election from Uttar Pradesh, highlighting the potential for further political realignments in the future. As the final results continue to come in, the implications for national politics will become even clearer.
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