What helped SP-Congress upset BJP’s UP applecart

While the SP fielded only five Yadavs – all from the family of party chief Akhilesh Yadav — it gave 27 tickets to non-Yadav OBCs; 11 to upper castes, including four Brahmins, two Thakurs, two Vaishyas, and one Khatri; and four to Muslims, besides 15 Dalit candidates in the SC-reserved constituencies.

In the last Lok Sabha election in 2019, when the SP contested 37 of the 80 seats in UP in alliance with Mayawati’s BSP and Jayant Chaudhary’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), it had fielded 10 Yadav candidates. It had then won 5 seats and its ally BSP 10. The BJP, on the other hand, had won 62 seats. Two seats were won by NDA ally Apna Dal (S).

In 2014, the SP had contested 78 seats, and fielded 12 Yadav candidates, including four from the “first family”, that is Mulayam’s clan.
“Our party was sure of the support from the Yadavs and Muslims. But we wanted to expand our base beyond these two communities and reach out to non-Yadav OBCs and Dalits, which seems to have happened now,” said a senior SP leader as trends showed the party winning more seats than expected.

Also, the SP changed candidates in several constituencies, depending on feedback from local cadre and local caste equation.
In contrast, this time the BJP, which contested 75 seats in UP (it has left five seats for three allies), has fielded 34 upper castes (16 Brahmins, 13 Thakurs, 2 Vaishyas and 3 belonging to other upper castes), and 25 OBCs, including one Yadav (Dinesh Lala Yadav in Azamgarh). The remaining 16 were on SC-reserved seats.

There was also a stark difference in the campaign style of the BJP-led NDA and INDIA bloc in UP. Unlike the BJP, which focused on holding grand rallies, the poll campaign of the SP-Congress combine laid less emphasis on scale and instead focused on reaching out to local communities.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who campaigned intensively in Rae Bareli and Amethi constituencies, didn’t hold many big rallies. Instead, she held over 20 nukkad sabhas daily, from morning to late evening.

On the other hand, the BJP’s campaign relied on big rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, instead of focusing on villages and small towns.

The SP, which has emerged as the third largest party in the country, has gained seats across UP, by winning seats in western, central and eastern parts of the state. The party has also gained seats in Bundelkhand, which was electorally dominated by the BJP in the last two Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019.

In west UP, the SP seems to be making gains by leading in at least eight seats, including Moradabad and Sambhal where Ruchi Veera and Zia-ur-Rahman were leading respectively. The Congress also seems to have gained in west UP, where its candidates Imran Masood and Danish Ali were leading in Saharanpur and Amroha.