Muslim votes shifted from SP, Dalit votes from BSP: BJP

NEW DELHI: UP BJP leader Kalraj Mishra today said that Samajwadi Party had lost Muslim votes in the state due to the Kalyan Singh factor while the Dalit votes had also shifted away from the BSP.

"In Uttar Pradesh, SP lost Muslim votes to the Congress as Kalyan Singh had joined hands with Mulayam Singh Yadav," Mishra, party's election in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, told reporters here.

He added that there was a division of Dalit votes between the Congress and the BSP.

Mishra said that the BJP-NDA got 15 seats and came second in as many as 19 seats.

"The losing margin was very low," he said. He attributed this shift in Muslim and Dalit votes away from SP and BSP respectively to the Congress as a major factor for the "good performance" of the BJP.

"So the BJP has not only gained in a number of seats but also in the number of votes," he added.