Lok Sabha Elections Results 2019: Bundelkhand, central UP gave BJP the edge - Hindustan Times
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Lok Sabha Elections Results 2019: Bundelkhand, central UP gave BJP the edge

Hindustan Times, Lucknow | By, Lucknow
May 24, 2019 12:33 PM IST

In central UP, the party won 17 of the 18 constituencies – Rae Bareli, a Congress stronghold -- being the only constituency that the BJP did not win.

The Bharatiya Janata Party dominated the central Uttar Pradesh and Bundelkhand regions, results declared for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on Thursday showed, as the party fended off a serious threat from an opposition coalition.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters celebrate after the announcement of Lok Sabha poll results, at Sigra Road, in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday, May 23, 2019.(Rajesh Kumar / HT Photo)
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporters celebrate after the announcement of Lok Sabha poll results, at Sigra Road, in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday, May 23, 2019.(Rajesh Kumar / HT Photo)

With 61 constituencies, the party won 10 fewer seats than it had in 2014.

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In central UP, the party won 17 of the 18 constituencies – Rae Bareli, a Congress stronghold -- being the only constituency that the BJP did not win. These clutch of constituencies are seen to have a large number of Yadav and non-Jatav scheduled caste voters – all of whom appear to have shifted to the BJP.

In Bundelkhand, a region that is prone to droughts and where farm distress was expected to be a factor, the party won all of the four seats, repeating a performance from last time.

The region where the BJP ceded the most ground to the Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal (SP-BSP-RLD) alliance was in the western UP region.

Here, the SP and BSP won four seats each out of a total of 28. The BJP won 20.

Also Read | Lok Sabha elections 2019: Narendra Modi’s persona makes UP vote beyond caste lines

In eastern UP, which includes parts of Purvanchal that have been dominated by the BJP, the part won 21 of 30. A BJP ally, the Apna Dal, won two seats while the BSP won six and the SP one.

Largely, the BJP performance was spread over across all regions. “BJP did exceedingly well across all the regions. It swept the central and the Bundelkhand region. The gathbandhan’s caste calculation worked only to some extent in the eastern and western parts of the state,” said professor SK Dwivedi, a political analyst and the retired head of the department of political sciences, Lucknow University.

“BJP had sensed the potential caste calculation threat early on and intensified the narrative to nationalism, national security. It even won back the three seats it lost in the bypolls,” he added.

The highlight of the BJP’s performance in the state was Smriti Irani’s victory from Congress bastion Amethi but the victory was closer than some of the other seats high-profile seats for the party.

In Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the seat by a margin of 479,000 votes, while the record for the state was set by Union minister VK Singh, who won by a margin of roughly 500,000 votes.

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