Narendra Modi’s man for all seasons, Amit Shah, has proved that the road to political power goes right through the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Within a year of being given charge, Shah has been a miracle worker, with the NDA leading in a staggering 73 of 80 seats in the Hindi heartland state till late Friday evening.
The BJP has surpassed its performance in UP this time, both in terms of number of seats as well as vote share, even if its performance during the Ramjanmabhoomi movement in the 1990s is considered. The highest it ever scored was 57 seats in undivided UP that included five constituencies of what is now called Uttarakhand. Even then, the party’s vote share had not crossed 33 per cent. This year, the vote share has gone up to a staggering 42.4 per cent while it is set to win 73 seats.
“I am disheartened that in all the seven seats we could not win in UP, it was the political dynasties who scored. We will set this right next time,” said Shah at the BJP headquarters on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is biting dust in its bastion without a single seat in its kitty. From 21 seats and 25 per cent vote share in 2009, the BSP’s number is reduced to zero and only 19.8 per cent vote share.
Also, Shah managed to shake Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, with the Congress Vice-President trailing behind the BJP candidate Smriti Irani, in the initial rounds of counting, though finally managing to register a victory. However, from a victory margin of 3,33,000 votes in 2009, late evening counting trends indicated that his margin will be restricted to less than 50,000 in this election.
From a tally of 21 seats, the Congress was reduced to just two seats with all the big names – Jitin Prasada (Dharahra), R P N Singh (Kushinagar), Beni Prasad Verma (Gonda), Shriprakash Jaiswal (Kanpur) – losing. The Samajwadi Party (SP) was able to win only those seats where party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family members were contesting – Mulayam Singh Yadav from both Mainpuri and Azamgarh, daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav from Kannauj, nephews Akshay Yadav from Firozabad and Dharmender Yadav from Badaun.
Although Shah himself had told Business Line about a month ago that this election was “one-sided”, he himself had not estimated the scale of his victory. In a background briefing earlier this week, Shah had modestly estimated around 50-55 seats in UP .
However, what he said about shaking caste barriers with a development plank seems to be true, especially in the BSP’s case. Mayawati’s secure vote base has been breached this time with Dalits other than Jatavs crossing over to the BJP. Another factor aiding the BJP sweep in UP is the disintegration of the Muslim vote, but with an overall consolidation in Modi’s favour. Heavy mobilisation by the RSS too worked in favour of the BJP this time. Finally, as BJP president Rajnath Singh said, the credit for UP especially goes to Amit Shah for his strategic brilliance.