Samajwadi Party storms back to power in UP on its own with best show

LUCKNOW: Putting up its best-ever performance, Samajwadi Party on Tuesday stormed to power in Uttar Pradesh with a stunning majority routing Mayawati-led BSP, the third time a party captured power on its own in the state in two decades.

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SP, which was ousted from power in 2007 on law and order issues, avenged its defeat at the hands of BSP which was reduced to 80 seats from 206 five years ago.

The Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party has captured 221 seats in the 403-member House and was ahead in three others when the counting of votes was on for 11 seats.

BJP was placed in third spot with 46 seats while Congress was relegated to fourth place with a tally of 28 seats and a lead in a couple of others.

While BJP this time lost four seats from its 2007 tally Congress improved its position marginally from what it was five years ago. SP's previous best performance was winning 143 seats in 2002 elections in a triangular contest with BSP and BJP.

The party's impressive performance could be gauged from the fact that it not only snatched seats from BSP but also made inroads into the stronghold of BJP like Lucknow.