The stage is set in the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh for counting of votes on Tuesday. All eyes are on high-profile candidates like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani as well as opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav.
The intense election process was spread over 78 days from March 16 to June 1. The poll schedule was announced by the Election Commission of India on March 16.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party contested the polls with its allies Apna Dal (Sonelal), NISHAD Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal and the Om Prakash Rajbhar-led Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party, while the opposition INDIA bloc partners Samajwadi Party and Congress fought the polls in the state together.
The Congress hopes to regain the lost ground in Uttar Pradesh which sends the largest number of 80 members to the Lok Sabha.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP chief JP Nadda and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held poll rallies and roadshows across the state as campaigning picked up. Yogi Adityanath addressed over 200 election rallies and Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed 20 rallies in the state.
Similarly, the brother-sister duo of Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra extensively campaigned for INDIA bloc candidates. SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav also campaigned for the candidates of the opposition grouping. Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi addressed a rally in Rae Bareli.
The campaign trail also saw Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati address rallies. Aam Aadmi Party national convener Arvind Kejriwal also visited Lucknow and held a press conference at the office of the SP.
According to the state’s Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa, the counting of votes will commence at 8 am on Tuesday at 81 counting centres set up in 75 districts of the state.
A total of 851 candidates – 771 men and 80 women – were in the fray in the elections in Uttar Pradesh, with the maximum of 28 in the Ghosi Lok Sabha constituency and the minimum of four in Kaiserganj.
Rinwa also said that the state recorded 56.92 per cent voting in the Lok Sabha elections this time, two percentage points less than the voter turnout in 2019.
The results will determine the political fate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is eyeing a hat-trick from Varanasi, as well as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who contested from Lucknow for the third consecutive time.
Similarly, the fate of Union ministers Mahendra Nath Pandey, Smriti Irani, Anupriya Patel and a few others will also be decided.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi contested the poll this time from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency, a seat earlier represented by his mother Sonia Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi represented the Amethi constituency thrice from 2004 before losing it to BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019. He, however, was elected to the outgoing Lok Sabha from Kerala’s Wayanad.
Five members of the Yadav family of the Samajwadi Party contested the Lok Sabha elections this time SP chief Akhilesh Yadav from Kannauj, sitting MP Dimple Yadav from Mainpuri, Dharmendra Yadav from Azamgarh, Akshay Yadav from Firozabad and Aditya Yadav from Budaun.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, then-allies Bahujan Samaj Party, Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal had achieved success in the Muslim-dominated region of western Uttar Pradesh. However, the political equations have completely changed this time.
The BSP contested the elections alone, while RLD, which has some influence in the Jat community of the western part of the state, joined hands with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.
BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said that his party contested from 75 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while alliance partners Apna Dal (Sonelal) contested from the Mirzapur and Robertsganj (SC) seats, the SBSP from Ghosi and the RLD from Bijnor and Baghpat.
SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said his party contested on 62 Lok Sabha seats in the state, while the Congress fielded its candidates in 17 constituencies. One seat was allotted to the INDIA bloc partner Trinamool Congress.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won 62 seats and its ally Apna Dal(S) two, brushing aside the challenge of the SP-BSP alliance. The Congress had won the lone Rae Bareli seat of Sonia Gandhi.
The BSP was the biggest gainer in the 2019 alliance, winning 10 seats. The SP had won five seats but the RLD could not open its account.
