The five states — Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur — went to polls on February 10. Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa Assembly Election Results 2022 Highlights: As AAP wrested power from Congress in Punjab, the Chief Minister designate, Bhagwant Mann, is all set to take oath of office along with other cabinet ministers on March 16 at Khatkar Kalan, the native village of Bhagat Singh near Nawanshahar.
Meanwhile, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who after BJP’s momentous victory is set to become the first Chief Minister to return to power in the state after completing a five-year term, on Friday submitted his resignation to Governor of the state Anandiben Patel on completion of his first tenure.
🗞️ Subscribe Now: Get Express Premium to access the best Election reporting and analysis 🗞️
Following a high-octane electoral battle, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged victorious in four of the five states. In Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) recorded a historic victory, with the largest mandate in recent years in the state. In Uttar Pradesh, Adityanath, too, has scripted history, returning to power. The BJP became the first party to retain power in the state since 1985. The party is also returning to power in Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa. While CM Pushkar Singh Dhami, in line with tradition, lost his seat, the party managed to beat anti-incumbency. In Goa, BJP crossed the majority mark with the help of three Independent candidates and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, which extended its support to the saffron party despite a pre-poll alliance with TMC. Congress leader P Chidambaram noted, “The overwhelming majority voted against the BJP, but their votes were split among many parties, which gave the BJP the opportunity to win 20 seats.”
PM Modi, BJP President JP Nadda and Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari at the victory programme in New Delhi. (Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal)
Punjab Chief Minister-designate Bhagwant Mann on Friday advised the newly-elected MLAs of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to remain humble after the massive victory in the Assembly polls and not get into browbeating political opponents.
Speaking to the MLAs in Mohali after being elected leader of the party’s legislative group, Mann said they should not forget that they are also the MLAs of those who did not vote for them.
“I want to request. We should not be arrogant. We should not go to anyone’s house and challenge him. Tell this to your volunteers also. You are also the MLAs of those who have not voted for you. This government has been made by all Punjabis,” he said. Read more
The Election Commission on Friday lifted the model code of conduct which was in force in five states where assembly polls were held recently. The model code of conduct came into place on January 8 in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur where polls were held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7. The results were announced on Thursday in which the BJP won Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur. On its own it has touched the halfway mark in Goa. Punjab was won by the AAP. --PTI
After BJP’s momentous victory in Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday submitted his resignation to Governor Anandiben Patel as his first tenure came to an end. Yogi is set to become the first Chief Minister to return to power in the state after completing a five-year term. With the win, the BJP became the first party to retain power in the state since 1985.
Punjab AAP leader Bhagwant Mann arrived at Mohali venue for MLA meeting on Friday. Talking to the media outside, he said he has invited Arvind Kejriwal for the oath-taking ceremony to be held at Khatkar Kalan on March 16. On March 13, he will pay obeisance at Amritsar, he added.
"Akhilesh Yadav and SP accept people's mandate. We thank people of UP for the 2.5 times increase in the seat tally and a 1.5 times surge in the vote share. The results have shown that the BJP's seat count can be decreased & this decline would continue," Samajwadi Party said.
As much as 27 per cent of the 70 candidates who have won the Uttarakhand assembly polls have declared criminal cases against themselves, according to poll reforms advocacy group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The ADR said the Uttarakhand Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all the 70 winning candidates. Read more
AAP leader Bhagwant Mann will be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Punjab on March 16. The party on Thursday registered a thumping victory in the state where it wrested power from Congress.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday termed the BJP's victory in assembly elections in four states as “not a true reflection of people's mandate” and accused the saffron camp of looting votes by using the election machinery.
Reiterating her call for an opposition alliance to defeat the BJP, Banerjee said there is no use of “sitting" idle and waiting for the Congress.
"The party (BJP) should not raise its voice much just because they have won in a few states. This victory is not a true reflection of the people's mandate. This verdict is because of the blatant use of the election machinery to loot votes. --PTI
Goa will dissolve assembly from March 14, said CM Pramod Sawant. "Today was the last cabinet meeting of the tenure. We thanked everyone. We also took a resolution to dissolve the assembly from March 14 as tenure is ending...Swearing-in ceremony of new govt will be decided by the central observer," he said.
Aam Aadmi Party CM candidate for Punjab Bhagwant Mann meets party convener Arvind Kejriwal and party leader Manish Sisodia, in Delhi.
Reacting to the results of the Assembly elections, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu called the people's mandate a "great decision". The Congress party met with a resounding defeat in Assembly elections, losing power in Punjab.
"You reap what you sow...This election was for a change. People took a great decision...public is never wrong," Sidhu was quoted as saying by ANI.
He added, "I'm not going into a deep thought on whether people accepted Channi's face as CM's candidate or not."
For a party to be recognised as a 'national party' it needs to meet one of the three criteria – and the AAP doesn't meet any of these:
> It needs to win at least two per cent of the total seats in the Lok Sabha (11 seats) from at least three different states. At present, the AAP has just 1 seat in the Lok Sabha; that of Bhagwant Mann's.
> Get at least six per cent votes in four states in addition to four Lok Sabha seats. It currently has only 6.7% voteshare in Goa as per the EC's trends thus far, and 3.3% in Uttarakhand. In the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, it got 53.6% vote share.
> Be recognised as a ‘state party’ in four or more states. The party only has recognition in Goa, Delhi and Punjab. For any party to be recognised as a state party, it must secure six per cent of the votes during the Assembly elections and two Assembly seats; or six per cent of votes in the Lok Sabha from the state and an MP from the state; or three per cent of total Assembly seats or three seats (whichever is greater); or one MP from every 25 Lok Sabha seats or eight per cent of total votes in the state during the Lok Sabha election from the state or the Assembly polls. Read Anisha Dutta's explainer here
Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said the decision of people is paramount as he hoped the new governments in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand will work for farmers and labourers.
"In the great festival of democracy, the decision of the people is paramount. The farmers' movement showed its effect. We hope that all the governments that have been formed will work for to uplift farmers and labourers in their respective states. Congratulations to all on the victory," Tikait tweeted in Hindi.
AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi described the results of Uttar Pradesh assembly elections as a "victory of 80-20" and felt that such an atmosphere would continue for many more years in the country's democracy.
Owaisi, whose party drew a blank in the UP polls, has said the AIMIM respects the people's verdict and continues to make efforts to win people's confidence in the future.
"Political parties are screaming about EVMs to hide their failures. I had said in 2019 also, that the error is not of EVMs. The chip that has been put in people's mind, that is playing a big role," he said on Thursday. "Success has definitely happened. But, it is the success of 80-20," he said, in an apparent reference to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's comments about "80-20" in the context of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. (PTI)
Emboldened by its victories in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur, the BJP has begun strategising for the next elections, claiming that it starts planning for the next on the same night that the results for one come out.
With the results being widely seen as an endorsement to the BJP’s welfare politics — various schemes and an effective delivery system, cutting across caste and religious lines — party sources said they would focus on consolidating its new “vote bank” of “women and beneficiaries of welfare schemes” to consolidate them further. Read Liz Mathew's report here
The Punjab Cabinet on Friday gave approval to recommend the State Governor Banwarilal Purohit for dissolution of 15th Punjab Vidhan Sabha. A decision to this effect was taken during a virtual Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi here at his official residence this morning.
At the end of the meeting, the Chief Minister thanked all his cabinet colleagues, officers, employees and people for overall development and maintaining peace and tranquillity in the state during the tenure of the present government.
The Chief Minister also congratulated the incoming government and hoped that the new government would earnestly implement the promises made to the people. He also hoped that the decisions taken by his government in the public interest such as reduction of electricity rates, slashing VAT on oil besides decreasing rates of sand and gravel etc. would be continued by the next government.
With the BJP retaining power in four states in the country, its friend-turned-foe Shiv Sena on Friday needled the party saying that it should not suffer from indigestion due to this success as it is more difficult to digest victory than defeat.
In an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, the Sena said that the BJP’s victory in four states will have no bearing on Maharashtra, and said its impact would be akin to what unfolds when monkeys get hold of a liquor bottle. Read more
Samajwadi Party’s Kanpur vice-president Narendra Singh alias ‘Pintu’ (55) allegedly attempted suicide by setting himself ablaze outside the Vidhan Bhawan in Lucknow on Thursday after his party lost the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
SP’s Kanpur district president Dr Imran said that Narendra Singh took the step because he felt the party lost the state Legislative Assembly election to the BJP due to irregularities in electronic voting machines (EVM). Read more
Incumbent Chief Minister of Punjab, Charanjit Singh Channi, lost both the seats he was contesting from in the Assembly elections. On Friday, he submitted his resignation to the governor.
The Aam Aadmi Party has registered a landslide victory in the state and Bhagwant Mann is set to take over as the chief minister.
In today's episode of '3 things' podcast, host Shashank Bhargava is joined by Indian Express’ Liz Mathew, and Manraj Grewal Sharma to decode the election results. Among other things, they discuss the reasons behind BJP’s win, what the AAP’s victory means for its national ambitions, and the lessons that the Congress needs to learn. Tune in!
Reacting to the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) performance in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Polls where it won only 1 of the 403 seats, Mayawati said that even the Dalits voted for the BJP as they feared a return of the Samajwadi Party’s jungle raj.
“BSP’s supporters, who are primarily upper caste Hindus and from several OBC communities, had a fear in them that if the SP came back to power, the state would be thrown back to the jungle raj and goonda raj of the past. Hence, they went ahead and voted for the BJP,” the supremo said.
Mayawati also blamed the Muslims for supporting the SP, which in turn impacted BSP’s numbers. “To defeat the BJP, the Muslims trusted SP. This has cost us. We have learnt a harsh lesson from trusting them (Muslims). We will keep this experience in mind and change accordingly,” Mayawati added. Read more
BJP is returning to power in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa. Whereas, AAP has claimed victory in Punjab.
With the Congress failing to make a mark in all the five states where Assembly election results were declared Thursday, senior leader Rahul Gandhi said the “party humbly accepts the people’s verdict in the polls” and will learn from it. He added that the party will keep working for the interests of the people of the country.
Senior leader Priyanka Gandhi said the party “was not able to convert its hard work into votes.” She added that the Congress party will move ahead with a positive agenda and work as a responsible opposition for the betterment of UP and its people.
Text by Tora Agarwala
Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a roadshow in Gujarat, following his party's win in four of the five states. He held up a victory sign as supporters cheered. (Express photos by Nirmal Harindran)
With the BJP returning to power in Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a victory roadshow in Gujarat. Riding in an open jeep decorated with floral garlands, Modi waved to the hundreds of supporters and admirers who gathered by the roadside as his roadshow began from the airport to Kamalam, BJP's state headquarters in Gandhinagar.
Taking a dig at Shiv Sena, which is ruling in Maharashtra in alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said, "Sena means 'BJP Sena' not Shiv Sena...Their (Shiv Sena) fight is with NOTA, not BJP. NCP and Sena's votes are even less than NOTA (in Goa)."
According to PTI, 'None of the Above' or NOTA option secured 1.12 per cent of total votes polled in Goa, while the Sena bagged a mere 0.18 per cent votes.
Even as the BJP returned to power in Uttar Pradesh with a thumping win, the party lost some of its big names, including its Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and some prominent ministers.
Maurya lost to Pallavi Patel, the Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader who fought on an SP ticket, in Sirathu. He lost by 7,337 votes. In Kushinagar’s Fazilanagar, turncoat Swami Maurya lost to BJP’s Surendra Khushwaha by more than 30,000 votes.
Sitting MLA and Sugarcane Minister Suresh Rana lost the elections to RLD’s Ashraf Ali in Thana Bhawan. BJP MLA Sangeet Som lost to SP’s Atul Pradhan by more than 15,000 votes in Sardhana constituency.
Congress state president Ajay Kumar Lallu fell short of a hat trick after losing to BJP’s Asim Kumar in Tamkuhi Raj constituency. Read more
After the BJP on Thursday won Assembly elections in four out of five states including Uttar Pradesh, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) once again targeted the Congress, saying that the party has “failed in taking on the BJP nationally”. TMC leaders added that the Congress should merge with the TMC and called upon its leaders to join hands under the leadership of its chairperson Mamata Banerjee, who is the “only one who can defeat BJP.”
TMC leader and State Transport and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said, “I do not understand why such an old party like the Congress is disappearing. We were also part of this party. The Congress should merge with the TMC. This is the right time. Then nationally on the principles of Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose we can fight against the principles of (Nathuram) Godse.” Read more
Political strategist Prashant Kishor on Friday dismissed claims that the results of the 2022 Assembly elections indicate a similarly victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
"Battle for India will be fought and decided in 2024 and not in any state elections. Saheb knows this! Hence, this clever attempt to create frenzy around state results to establish a decisive psychological advantage over opposition," Kishor tweeted.
Though he hasn't named anyone, his tweet comes as an apparent reference to PM Modi's speech post-election results, where he hoped "political pundits, who did not think much of the party’s 2019 (Lok Sabha) win saying it had already been decided by the 2017 UP results, will now have the courage to say that the 2022 (UP) results have decided the 2024 (Lok Sabha) results."
The Aam Aadmi Party storm made the Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party hit one of the lowest ebbs in their electoral history of Punjab since it was carved out as a separate state in 1966.
In the worst-ever electoral performance in the 13 Punjab Vidhan Sabha elections held after the reorganisation in 1966, 100-year-old Shiromani Akali Dal could not get to double digit mark, hitting another low this time winning only three seats compared with 15 it had won in the 117-member Vidhan Sabha in 2017 elections. The only SAD candidates who won were Bikram Singh Majithia’s wife Ganieve Kaur (from Majitha), Manpreet Singh Ayali from Dakha and Dr Sukhwinder Singh Sukhi from Banga. SAD won a seat each in Majha, Malwa and Doaba regions.
Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi lost both from Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur, the two constituencies he contested from. Read more
The return of Yogi Adityanath as Chief Minister in Uttar Pradesh after a full five-year term not only marks a watershed in the state’s political history but, along with the BJP’s victory in three other states, upends the party’s national trend of losses in states after Narendra Modi took charge at the Centre in 2014.
In effect, it secures for the party the pole position in national politics based on electoral affirmation for its governance record. Read more
Delhi Confidential: On a day the BJP won big in four of the five Assembly elections, the grandest victory was in Uttar Pradesh, where the party retained power with a clear majority. In his 45-minute speech at the party’s headquarters in Delhi, the Prime Minister spoke about several topics, and even said how it would lead to the party’s victory in the 2024 general elections. But Modi did not highlight any of the chief ministers of the four states where the party won, beating anti-incumbency.
Following Thursday's spectacular win in Punjab, which pitchforked the party onto the national stage, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh now figure prominently on AAP’s radar, senior leaders told The Indian Express.
In Gujarat, where elections are expected this year-end, the party is already on campaign mode as it seeks to capitalise on its moment in history by filling the space vacated by a diminishing Congress. Next month, Kejriwal and Punjab’s Chief Minister-designate Bhagwant Mann are expected to travel to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state to add muscle to AAP's campaign. Read more
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s stunning victory in Punjab Assembly polls does not mean that the party is a “threat to BJP” at the national level, said BJP leaders.
For the AAP to emerge as an alternative to the saffron party, the BJP leaders said, it should win “at least 100 Lok Sabha seats”.
However, at least two leaders The Indian Express spoke to pointed out that the AAP’s “strategies and its methods” are similar to that of the BJP in its pursuit to become a “party with a development agenda”. Read more
The Congress, its footprint shrunk to just two states, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, from the nine it had when Narendra Modi took charge in May 2014, was once again staring at a crisis of credibility and leadership.
Many veterans, represented by the G-23, said this was a we-told-you-so moment. “I am shocked, my heart is bleeding to see our defeat in state after state,” said CWC member Ghulam Nabi Azad. Party leader Shashi Tharoor, meanwhile, reiterated his call for leadership reform.
Sources said some G-23 leaders will meet at Azad’s residence tomorrow to chalk out the next course of action. The immediate concern, sources said, is to keep the party united amid concerns over defections and even a split. Read more
? Law & order: Despite criticism of rights violation, the UP government was able to successfully project its crackdown on the mafia and the killing of criminals in police encounters as a sign of better law and order.
? Welfare schemes: The free ration scheme of the Central and state governments was a gamechanger for the BJP as families struggled through a pandemic that led to the loss of lives and jobs.
? Hindutva: The BJP continued to be unabashed about its Hindutva card, with a string of visible outreach projects – from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s laying of the foundation stone at Ayodhya to the inauguration of the Kashi corridor.
? Party organisation: The BJP continued its door-to-door outreach even during the lockdown, much before the Opposition parties could start their campaign.
? Shrinking Oppn: Despite the Samajwadi Party scoring a big improvement from 2017, with Opposition parties contesting separately, they ended up cutting into each other’s votes.
Read Lalmani Verma's explainer here
AAP has bounced back from infighting, mass desertion and losses in every subsequent poll in the state since then, to claim the largest mandate in recent years and trounce the Congress as well as SAD. It was a clear message from AAP on who was the new boss in Punjab.
Today, over eight years after it first emerged as a formidable force in Delhi, AAP has marked a tectonic shift in national politics, winning 92 of 117 seats in Punjab with a vote share of 42.1 per cent, up from 20 seats and a vote share of 23.7 per cent last time. Read more
As the BJP won Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath was set to make history as the first Chief Minister to return to power in the state after a five-year term. It is also the first time a party has come back to power in UP since 1985.
His influence restricted to a small region around the Gorakhpur Mutt, of which he was the head priest, apart from him being a five-time MP from the Gorakhpur seat, Adityanath was a surprise pick as CM by the BJP central leadership five years back.
A comfortable win also settles any remaining doubts about Adityanath's leadership of the state BJP. There has often been talk about his brusque style, propensity to strike out on own. Read more
It is premature to write the epitaph of a party as old as the Congress, which still has a pan-Indian footprint. But the resounding rejection of the party in the Assembly elections poses the worst crisis it has ever faced, as well as the big question: where does it go from here?
In 2014, it was in power in nine states. Today, the Congress is worse off than it was 24 years ago — it is ruling in only two states, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
The results will become yet another arrow in the quiver of the anti-Rahul Gandhi camp to seek democratisation in the party. There will be calls for putting in place a collective leadership model, a relatively alien concept for the Congress, to undercut the supremacy of the Gandhis. Read Manoj C G's analysis here
One of the key takeaways from the BJP’s victories in four states, and particularly in the crucial battleground of Uttar Pradesh, is this: Of the two ambitious political projects that were launched almost simultaneously in the politically turbulent 1990s, Mandal and Mandir, while the second is on its way towards achieving its aim of forging a national community that transcends faultlines of caste, class and region, the first has fragmented, its egalitarian charge more and more dissipated. Read Vandita Mishra's explainer here
In a resounding endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies and his party’s “double-engine” electoral plank amid criticism of the handling of the pandemic and job losses, especially in main battleground UP where Yogi Adityanath was seeking a second term, four of five states that went to polls returned the BJP to power Thursday.
Elated over the BJP’s 4/5 score, Modi, addressing party workers in New Delhi, said he hoped “political pundits, who did not think much of the party’s 2019 (Lok Sabha) win saying it had already been decided by the 2017 UP results, will now have the courage to say that the 2022 (UP) results have decided the 2024 (Lok Sabha) results.” Read more
While the Samajwadi Party failed to claim victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the party has increased its seat tally and its vote share by 11%. In 2017, when it fought in alliance with the Congress, the SP had won 47 seats, with a vote share of 21.28%. This time, it has won 111, with a vote share of 32%.
"Hearty thanks to the people of UP for increasing our seats by two and a half times and vote percentage by one and a half times! We have shown that BJP seats can be reduced. This reduction of BJP will continue unabated," Yadav tweeted Friday morning.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s stunning victory in Punjab Assembly polls does not mean that the party is a “threat to BJP” at the national level, said BJP leaders. For the AAP to emerge as an alternative to the saffron party, the BJP leaders said, it should win “at least 100 Lok Sabha seats”.
AAP’s growth as a party — winning two state assemblies with splendid mandate — will also mean that the anti-BJP votes will get further divided, the BJP leaders said. “In the next 20 years, like the Congress has taken the centre stage as a stable national party in the past, the BJP will be there. The anti-BJP space is opening up and with the Congress’ ability to retain its relevance as a binding force for the opposition being doubtful, it (AAP) can be in that space. However, to emerge as an alternative to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it should win at least 100 seats in the Lok Sabha,” said P Muralidhar Rao, senior BJP leader. Read Liz Mathew's report
Janata Dal (United) national spokesperson KC Tyagi has said that the BJP’s victory in Uttar Pradesh was “an extension of Bihar model of governance”.When asked if JD(U) would now be under pressure from its senior alliance partner BJP, Tyagi said: “We are not under any pressure. It is a victory of the NDA. It is true that we contested independently in UP and lost but we had little stake there. But with our good show in Manipur, we are on course to become a national party soon.”
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar congratulated the BJP for its victory in four states. “My wishes to BJP for its victory in UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur Assembly polls. People have reposed faith in the leadership of PM Narendra Modi Ji,” he tweeted. Nitish also congratulated his own party for the good show in Manipur, and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal for Punjab win. Read Santosh Singh's report
After the BJP on Thursday won Assembly elections in four out of five states including Uttar Pradesh, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) once again targeted the Congress, saying that the party has “failed in taking on the BJP nationally”. TMC leaders added that the Congress should merge with the TMC and called upon its leaders to join hands under the leadership of its chairperson Mamata Banerjee, who is the “only one who can defeat BJP.”
TMC leader and State Transport and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said, “I do not understand why such an old party like the Congress is disappearing. We were also part of this party. The Congress should merge with the TMC. This is the right time. Then nationally on the principles of Mahatma Gandhi and Subhash Chandra Bose we can fight against the principles of (Nathuram) Godse.”
TMC’s spokesperson Kunal Ghosh also echoed Hakim. He said, “We have said for a long time that the Congress cannot fight against a force like the BJP. To fight against the BJP, we need a leader like Mamata Banerjee. The Congress should understand this.” Read full report
The Congress party was decimated in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, with its tally plunging to just 2 out of the total 403 seats. The party’s vote share plummeted to 2.3 per cent of the votes polled in the state. This was the grand old party’s worst-ever electoral performance in the politically-important state so far despite months of rigorous campaign undertaken by party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra across UP.
Priyanka had spearheaded a high-voltage Congress campaign centred on women and youths, with the party coming up with separate manifestos for them. In the run-up to the polls, Priyanka had also taken the initiative to give 40 per cent of party tickets to women, with the party fielding 159 women candidates of its total 403 nominees in the polls. Read Maulshree Seth's report
Yogi Adityanath is the first ever chief minister in the history of Uttar Pradesh’s electoral politics to win a consecutive term for his party after completing full five years in office.
Though the Congress-led governments had repeated themselves in the past but no chief minister got it after full term as the party replaced them before the elections — GB Pant was replaced by Dr Sampurnanand in 1957; CB Gupta replaced Dr Sampurnanand in 1962; HN Bahuguna took the baton from Kamlapati Tripathi after a brief period of President’s rule in 1974; and ND Tewari replaced Sripati Mishra in 1985. Two of the Yogi’s predecessors Akhilesh Yadav (SP, 2012-17) and Mayawati (BSP, 2007-12) had also completed their full tenuresas chief ministers, but they couldn’t bring their respective parties to power again. Mayawati was the first chief minister in the state to have completed full term.
It looks plausible that a certain percentage of BSP votes shifted towards the BJP that bagged 41.45 per cent votes — highest ever vote share for a political party in the Assembly polls since 1993. Read Shyamlal Yadav 's report
In a resounding endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies and his party’s “double-engine” electoral plank amid criticism of the handling of the pandemic and job losses, especially in main battleground UP where Yogi Adityanath was seeking a second term, four of five states that went to polls returned the BJP to power Thursday. The AAP swept Punjab, packing off stalwarts and uprooting rival parties to change the political landscape.
Elated over the BJP’s 4/5 score, Modi, addressing party workers in New Delhi, said he hoped “political pundits, who did not think much of the party’s 2019 (Lok Sabha) win saying it had already been decided by the 2017 UP results, will now have the courage to say that the 2022 (UP) results have decided the 2024 (Lok Sabha) results.”
With the BJP set to form governments again in UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, Modi said: “A hill state adjacent to the border, a coastal state, a state with special blessings of Mother Ganga and a state on the northeastern border, the BJP has received blessings from all four directions.” Read full report
The Congress, its footprint shrunk to just two states, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, from the nine it had when Narendra Modi took charge in May 2014, was once again staring at a crisis of credibility and leadership. This crisis isn’t new — the party has won just five of the 45 elections held since 2014. But what struck a different note this time was that even the familiar refrain of the need to re-invent was absent. Instead, there is a sense of despair and a foreboding of impending internal upheaval.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi signalled that the meeting of the party’s Working Committee will be called soon to discuss the way ahead but several leaders The Indian Express spoke to were groping in the dark. Some younger leaders, referring to the landslide AAP victory in Punjab, did argue that the “old and jaded” need to make way for fresh blood.
Many veterans, represented by the G-23, said this was a we-told-you-so moment. “I am shocked, my heart is bleeding to see our defeat in state after state,” said CWC member Ghulam Nabi Azad. “We gave our entire youth and life to the party…I am sure that the party’s leadership will take note of all weaknesses and shortcomings which my colleagues and I had been talking about for quite some time.” Read Manoj C G's report
That was Yogi Adityanath on the way forward — after he and his party had already created history in UP. On Thursday, Adityanath became the first Chief Minister to return to power in the state after completing a five-year term. And the BJP became the first party to retain power in the state since 1985. In his speech after wrapping up the mandate, Adityanath also underscored the key theme behind his party’s repeat win. “The BJP’s double engine government, in the past five years, created an atmosphere of security and gave respect to faith,” he said. It was also a tumultuous reign marked by controversial encounter deaths, the anti-conversion law, the so-called anti-romeo squads, the Hathras rape and killing, and the landmark Ayodhya verdict.
But on Thursday, Adityanath accused the Opposition of fanning “conspiracies” and “fake propaganda”, and was clear about what pulled him through: “UP public’s blessings for the model of nationalism, development and good governance.” “And we accept their blessings,” he said. “We will have to take forward the mantra of sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas and sabka prayas.” Read Lalmani Verma's report
The scoreboard after the latest round of assembly elections is confirmation, if more was needed, that the BJP is the primary pole of this country’s politics. At one time, it now seems very long ago, India’s polity was described as a one-party dominant system, with a Congress which was more a coalition than a party, its centrepiece. That time is long gone, the Congress is inexorably becoming a paler and more shrunken shadow of itself. And a BJP that got new life with the ascent of Narendra Modi at its top in 2014, is notching up achievements. With this round of elections, it has all but upended one of the last few caveats to its spectacular success – the party is yet to conquer the country’s south, barring Karnataka, it is pointed out, and even elsewhere, its performance in the states does not match up to its dominance of the Centre. While the south remains a challenge for Modi’s party, its decisive victories in four out of the five just-concluded assembly elections, including and especially UP, have, at least for now, put paid to the latter criticism. In politically crucial UP, the Yogi Adityanath government has become the first to get a consecutive second term in more than three decades. Read Full Story
The BJP is all set to return to power in Manipur for a second consecutive term, hitting the majority mark as results of the Assembly elections came in on Thursday. The Congress, on the other hand, has been decimated in its once-bastion — from being the single-largest party with 27 seats in 2017, the party managed to win a mere five seats.
The BJP’s victory, won on the planks of ‘peace and development’, signals that it has been able to successfully hold its own in the often fickle electoral landscape of Manipur. While in 2017, the BJP, which won 21 seats, went all out to cobble up a last-minute alliance, with the help of smaller parties such as the National People’s Party (NPP), Naga People’s Front (NPF) and a few Independents, this time, the party will not require any help. Read Tora Agarwala's report
Voters in Goa have poured cold water, at least for now, on the Trinamool Congress' plans to expand reach beyond West Bengal and emerge as a national party challenging the BJP, PTI reported. Its show in the Goa election failed to match the noise it created while entering the poll fray, with zero seat to show. Even its pre-poll partner, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), has extended its hand in support of the BJP that ahs just touched the majority mark winning 20 of the 40 seats in the state. The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) gained prominence when it inducted former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro and tennis superstar Leander Paes into its fold.With the slogan Goenchi Navi Sakal (New Dawn for Goa), it had launched a high decibel campaign, mainly run by Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC).
In the end, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav did not prove up to what was always going to be a Herculean task.However, the 48-year-old, who took over the mantle from SP patron and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, put up the only challenge to the BJP, drawing crowds, shutting out in-house family squabbling contenders, and putting some distance between himself and the “goondaism” baggage of his last government. Read full story by Asad Rehman here
If the Amritsar East contest was a microcosm of what Punjab politics looked like, its result signifies how the same looks post-Thursday. In the no-holds-barred fight between titans Navjot Singh Sidhu of the Congress and Bikram Singh Majithia of the Akali Dal, the winner from Amritsar East turned out to be a candidate no one had paid any attention to: the Aam Aadmi Party’s Jeevan Jyot Kaur, better known as the ‘Padwoman’, for promoting reusable sanitary napkins.
It was Kaur’s first-ever electoral battle — and win – against two candidates who had never tasted defeat before. She secured 39,520 votes against 32,807 for Sidhu and 25,112 for Majithia. Read more about her here
The BJP has crossed the majority mark in both Uttarakhand and Manipur. It has so far won 46 seats out of 70 in Uttarkhand and 32 of 60 seats in Manipur assembly.
With the BJP set to return to power in Uttar Pradesh for the second consecutive term, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma Thursday said the voters have rejected the Opposition's narrow-minded politics and put their approval stamp on the saffron party's double engine government, PTI reported. The people got to know the "opportunistic character" of the SP-RLD alliance and hence did not vote for it, he said.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav defeats Union minister SP Singh Baghel, BJP, by 67,504 vote margin from Karhal constituency in UP Assembly polls.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is the only big winner apart from the BJP this election, with the party, going by trends, set to form the government in Punjab with a lead in 91 seats and opening its account in Goa with two seats and a vote share of 6%.
In January this year, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener announced that the party would contest the upcoming Assembly polls in six states — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat in 2022. With the stage set for the AAP to form a government in another state – the only regional party to be in power in two states – and its footprint, and ambition, growing, questions are now being raised about whether AAP can claim to be a national party?
The answer to that is: not yet. But the state party is well on its way to becoming a national party in the coming years if it meets Election Commission’s criteria. Read our explainer