The Modi wave swept Uttar Pradesh, helping the BJP bag a whopping 73 seats of the total 80 in the battleground State.
The mighty BSP of Mayawati was reduced from 21 seats to zero while for the Congress, only Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi managed to win from Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively. The BSP’s vote share was reduced from 25 per cent in 2009 to 19.8 per cent, effectively meaning that only Mayawati’s core vote of Jatavs remained with the Dalit party. The other sub-castes among the Dalits clearly shifted to the BJP.
The Congress’ vote share too fell drastically from 28.55 per cent in 2009 to just 7.5 per cent.
The ruling Samajwadi Party somehow managed to win five seats but they all belonged to the Mulayam Singh Yadav clan. Nephews Dharmendra and Akshay Yadav, daughter-in-law Dimple and Mulayam himself secured a victory. Mulayam won from both Azamgarh and his family bastion Mainpuri.
The fourth player, Rashtriya Lok Dal, with its support base largely among the Jats, too failed to open its account. The BJP even won from seats like Ambedkar Nagar, where it had never won before despite fielding firebrand leaders such as Vinay Katiyar in the past.