BSP Paved Way For NDA Win In 16 UP Seats: Report (image: x.com/Mayawati)

Even though Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) did not win a single seat from Uttar Pradesh, the Mayawati-led party has paved the way for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The ruling party fell short of the absolute majority and needs support from its allies to form a government in centre as per the Lok Sabha election results announced on Tuesday. The BSP has garnered more votes than the victory margin in 14 seats of BJP and two of its allies Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Apna Dal (Soneylal), an analysis shows. Times of India has reported about this earlier.

BSP has fielded 424 candidates across the country, including 79 of 80 seats in UP, which it fought alone. Despite contesting in majority of seats, the vote share declined nationally at 2 percent, while in UP vote share shrank to 9.38 percent from over 12 percent.

The 16 seats includes Akbarpur, Aligarh, Amroha, Bansagaon, Bhadhohi, Bhijnor, Deoria, Farrukhabad, Fatehpur Sikri, Hardoi, Meerut, Mirzapur, Misrikh, Phulpur, Shahjahanpur, and Unnao. Notably, the BSP has finished third in all these seats. The BSP has bagged more than one lakh votes in seven seats, while the INDIA alliance candidates has conceded defeat in respective seats with less than fifty thousand votes. In Bijnor, BSP was polled more than two lakhs and the Samajwadi Party candidate Deepak lost the seat for 37,508 votes.

In Basgaon, Farrukhabad and Phulpur parliament seats, the INDIA alliance candidates has lost the seat for less than 5,000 votes, while the BSP has raked in nearly 50,000 votes in those seats. In Thirteen of Sixteen seats, the BSP has collected more than double of victory margin.

Now, after fielding candidates in all seats and made a dent in INDIA alliance vote share, many has been calling BSP the ‘B-team’ of the ruling BJP. According to various analysis, the BSP has created split in the Muslim and Dalit votes in the state, which constitute about 20 and 21 percent, respectively. The party has fielded 35 of 79 candidates from Muslim community, which has significant influence in many UP seats.

According to many, had these 16 seats gone to the INDIA alliance, it would have taken the tally of NDA down to 278, and BJP to 226, which would have been a bigger shocker for the ruling party while its stood not as a single largest majority after the general elections.

(This story is part of Timeline internship project)