As the results for all 543 seats in the India elections were declared, the opposition's INDIA bloc delivered a significant defeat to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The INDIA bloc parties won 43 out of 80 Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) seats in Uttar Pradesh, according to the Election Commission of India.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) won 37 seats, and the Congress secured six seats. The BJP won 33 seats, with its allies Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Apna Dal (Sonelal) winning two and one seats, respectively. Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) chief Chandrashekhar Azad won from Nagina.
BJP candidate Rajveer Singh Raju Bhaiya, son of former chief minister Kalyan Singh, lost to SP candidate Devesh Shakya by 28,052 votes in Etah. Narendra Modi (Varanasi) defeated Congress rival Ajay Rai. Defence minister Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), minister Anupriya Patel (Mirzapur), and minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary (Maharajganj) retained their seats.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi (Rae Bareli) and SP President Akhilesh Yadav (Kannauj) also won. Yadav thanked supporters on ‘X’, saying, “Janmat ko pranam, Janmat ko salam!” He added, “The aware people of UP have once again shown the country a new path, awakened new hopes. This is a victory of saving the Constitution, democracy and reservation and ensuring social justice.”
The BSP, led by former state chief minister Mayawati, did not win any seats this time, a stark contrast to their 10 seats in the 2019 elections. Anupriya Patel’s Apna Dal (Sonelal) won one seat, while the RLD secured the Bijnor and Baghpat seats.
In eastern Uttar Pradesh, BJP’s allies from backward castes, Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal (NISHAD) President Sanjay Nishad and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) President Om Prakash Rajbhar, did not perform well for the NDA. Sanjay Nishad’s son Praveen Nishad lost in Sant Kabir Nagar, and Rajbhar’s son Arvind Rajbhar was defeated by an SP candidate in Ghosi.
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Along with Rahul Gandhi's win in Rae Bareli, Congress’s Kishori Lal Sharma won the Amethi seat, defeating BJP’s Smriti Irani. Akhilesh Yadav won from Kannauj, his wife Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, and other Yadav family members also secured their seats.
The BJP lost Maneka Gandhi’s Sultanpur seat and minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s Lakhimpur Kheri seat. BJP candidate Ravi Kishan won in Gorakhpur. Actress Hema Malini and Arun Govil, known for his role as Lord Ram in the TV serial "Ramayan," won from Mathura and Meerut, respectively.
(PTI)
Thangam Debbonaire (Pic from Wikimedia Commons)
Richard Townshend
