UP result highlights: BJP’s vote share swells in Uttar Pradesh

NEW DELHI: The BJP staged a spectacular increase in vote share in Uttar Pradesh, where the Samajwadi Party suffered its sharpest decline in the portion of votes it received. For the Congress, which contested the election in alliance with the SP, the score was the lowest ever.

BJP’s vote share in UP rose to 39.7% from 15% five years ago. In 2012, when the SP and Congress went to polls separately, they together cornered about 40.7% of the votes polled. That has now shrunk to 28%.

While keeping in mind the seat-sharing formula of the alliance, a bare look at statistics shows that the ruling SP suffered the sharpest decline in its vote share, by more than 7 percentage points to 21.8% from 29.13% in 2012. The last time the party got a smaller share was in 1996, when the count was 21.8%.

The Congress got a mere 6.2% share and won only 7 seats. Its low since 1996 was 8.3% vote and 25 seats. Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party received a 22.2% vote share versus 30.43% in 2007 when she formed the government.