The Samajwadi Party (SP) might have to bite dust in the battle of ballot in Uttar Pradesh but there is a silver lining for it in the defeat. The party has placed itself as the main and the only opposition party against ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaving Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress far behind.
The number of seats to SP has increased many folds and so is the vote percentage. Compared to the 2017 assembly polls when SP could get only 47 seats despite having an alliance with the grand old congress party, it has managed to get more than 130 seats this time. Besides the vote percentage of SP has risen to a never before level in this elections. The party, as per the primary figures made available by the election commission, has a vote share of around 35 per cent in this assembly election. It previous maximum in terms of vote share was 29 per cent.
For the first time the party has been able to grab a good number of seats in Western UP where the Rashtriya Lok Dal and BSP used to be major players along with BJP. In West UP, SP has been able to win maximum seats in Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Bijnore and Moradabad districts. Besides, in its strongholds of east UP, the party has fared well. In Balia, Ambedkarnagar and Azamgarh districts, the party has done well grabbing most of the seats. In the Yadav belt too, the party has improved its tally compared to 2017 assembly polls by winning more than 70 per cent of seats in Etawah, Mainpuri, Kasganj, Ferozabad and Etah.
However, the party’s dismal performance in Bundelkhand region has continued in this election also. In Bundelkhand, the party could not get a single seat in Jhansi, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Hamirpur districts while in Fathepur it got three and one in Chitrakoot. The worst came for SP from the Awadh region where its hope of doing well in Sitapur, Lakhimpur, Pilibhit, Hardoi, Unnao and Gonda shattered with defeat of its maximum candidates. In East UP the clean sweep made by BJP in Varanasi, Mirzapur and Sonbhadra district too proved disaster for SP.
