People's Democracy

UP Elections At A Glance

THIS time the results of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections were quite interesting. All the guesses went wrong, embarrassing the media pundits and politicians who were predicting a hung assembly with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) emerging as the single largest party. But the people gave the BSP a clear majority. In an assembly of 403 seats, the BSP got 206 and formed a government on its own. With 97 seats, Samajwadi Party (SP) occupied the second slot. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a loss of many seats and came third with only 50 seats. The Indian National Congress (INC) got 22, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) 10, Rashtriya Parivartan Dal 2, while the Jan Morcha, Bharatiya Janshakti Party, Janata Dal (United), All India Loktantrik Congress and Rashtriya Swabhiman Party got one seat each. Independents bagged 9 seats.

A total of 6086 candidates were in the fray in these elections --- 1225 from national parties, 647 from state level parties, 277 from parties recognised in other states, 1350 from registered parties and 2581 independents.

The SP put up candidates on 393 seats, BSP on 403, BJP on 350, INC on 393, RLD on 14, JD(U) on 10, CPI(M) on 14, CPI on 21, and CPI(ML) on 33 seats.

There was no clash whatsoever between the CPI(M) and the CPI on any seat. But the CPI(ML) clashed with the CPI on 2 and with the CPI(M) on 4 seats.

The CPI(M) and the CPI have no representative in the new assembly. It was only in 1980 that the CPI(M) had no representation in the UP assembly.

The CPI(M) came second in 3 seats. It got 13,000 to 15,000 votes on 2 seats while its vote tallies varied from 1,000 to 3,500 on the remaining seats it contested. The CPI got about 5,500 votes on 1 seat and less than 1,000 on another; its votes ranged from 1,000 to 3,000 on the remaining seats. The CPI(ML) got about 4,500 votes on 2 seats, 1,000 to 3,000 on 12 and less than 1,000 on the remaining 19 seats. The CPI(M), CPI and CPI(ML) got respectively 0.30, 0.13 and 0.12 percent of the votes polled in these elections.

The vote shares of the BSP, SP, BJP and INC were 30.46, 25.45, 16.93 and 8.56 percent respectively. With only 30 percent of the votes polled, the BSP bagged more than 50 percent of the seats because of the triangular contests. It bagged 61 out of the 88 seats reserved for the scheduled seats and, overall, it registered a 7.40 percent increase in its vote share, compared to 2002. Though the SP’s vote share went up by 0.03 percent, its seat tally came down by 46, and it remained second on 172 seats. The INC’s and BJP’s vote shares suffered an erosion of 0.4 and 3.15 percent respectively. Independents and smaller parties also suffered erosions.

Various parties lost altogether 259 sitting seats in these polls, retaining only 143 seats they had won in 2002. The SP lost 99 of its sitting seats, BSP 33, BJP 62, INC 18, RLD 9, CPI(M) 2 and others 35.

During the polls spread over 7 phases, the BSP bagged maximum seats in the second and sixth rounds --- 33 in each --- while the SP got 23 seats in the fourth round. The RLD bagged all its 10 seats in the second round. The maximum seats of the INC, 9 out of the 22, came in the fifth round, while the BJP did not make it to a two-digit figure any time except in the second round.

Of the 62 constituencies going to the polls in the first round, the BSP got 33, SP 14, BJP 8, INC 4, Jan Morcha 1 and independents 2 seats.
Of the 58 constituencies going to the polls in the second round, the BSP got 29 seats, SP only 3, BJP and RLD 10 each, INC and independents 2 each, while the Jan Morcha got 1 seat.

In the third round of polling, the BSP, SP and BJP got 28, 17 and 8 seats respectively, while the Rashtriya Parivartan Dal got 2 and the Bharatiya Janshakti Party and INC got 1 each.

The BSP, SP, BJP and INC got 27, 23, 4 and 3 seats respectively in the fourth round, while any other party or the independents could not open an account.

The BSP got 26 seats in the fifth round, SP 12, BJP 6, INC 9, Rashtriya Swabhiman Dal 1 and independents 3.

The BSP got 33 seats in the sixth round, SP 11, BJP 6 and the INC and JD(U) 1 each.

The BSP led in the seventh and last round also by bagging half of the seats going to the polls. Out of 59 seats in this round, the BSP got 30, SP 17, BJP 8, and the INC and independents 2 each.

Contesting on the tickets of various parties, a total of 56 Muslims were elected in these assembly polls, with the BSP leading the tally with 29. As many as 61 scheduled caste candidates have on the BSP ticket while their total number in the assembly is 85. The last assembly had 26 women members while their number has now come down to 22. Of these, 10 have won on the BSP ticket, 4 from the SP, 5 from the BJP, and one each from the INC, RLD and Rashtriya Parivartan Dal.