Representational Image  |  Photo Credit: PTI
Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022 are about to kick off in just over a week from now on February 10. The incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition Samajwadi Party, Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal are all vying for votes in the country’s most politically-crucial state, as it sends the maximum number of MPs to the Lok Sabha.
While we will know on March 10 when the votes are counted for the seven-phased Uttar Pradesh election as to who will emerge as the winner, it is imperative to also look at the last election’s results that came out in 2017.
How many seats did BJP win in 2017?
The BJP had won a landslide in the 2017 UP Assembly Election winning a total of 312 seats. The alliance, in total, had won 325 seats.
The BJP+ included Apna Dal (Sonelal) led by Anupriya Patel and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party headed by Om Prakash Rajbhar. Apna Dal had won nine seats and SBSP four.
It may be noted here that the BJP had contested 384 seats, while Apna Dal was allocated 11 and SBSP eight.
How did SP perform in 2017?
While opinion polls have suggested a resurgence for the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP this time, in 2017, the party was reduced to a minuscule force in the state winning just 47 of the total 403 seats. The party had contested on a total of 311 seats. The SP and Congress had contested the election together and the alliance had won a total of just 54 seats, meaning the Congress was nearly wiped out and bagged just seven seats. The national party had contested on more than 100 seats then.
In the 2022 elections, Congress is contesting the polls alone.
What was BSP’s seat tally in 2017?
Mayawati’s BSP had won just 19 seats in the 2017 UP polls. RLD could barely open its account winning just one seat in the last election.
It may be noted here that Yogi Adityanath was a surprise CM pick by the BJP in 2017, which has this time made the head priest of the Gorakhnath temple in the eastern UP city of Gorakhpur as its face for the 2022 elections to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.