The BJP’s tally of 71 lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh is much more than the total number of seats won by the entire UPA across the country, 62. Of them, Congress has won 44 seats.
It is the lowest ever tally for Congress which had bagged 114 seats in 1999. The results have come as a rude jolt to the Congress given the fact that it had been in power for 10 long years via the coalition route.
Incidentally, both the record lows have come under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, who has the distinction of being the longest serving president of party and who has been at the helm of affairs since 1998 after ousting Sitaram Kesari from the top post in the wake of the party losing the lok Sabha election then.
For the BJP, It has been a rollercoaster ride in the last 30 years with the saffron party in pole position on Friday after having a measly two seats in 1984. The victory for the BJP is also significant because India has not had a single party rule for 25 long years since 1989 during which coalition or minority governments have been in power. A Narendra Modi wave catapulted the BJP to power after 10 long years in the opposition with its tally set to more than double from 117 in an election which saw the BJP prime ministerial candidate secure a huge mandate.
This is the second time in independent India that an opposition party has come to power in such a manner, the earlier being the 1977 elections which was held after the infamous Emergency era that brought Janata Party to power. BJP will be coming to power for the fourth time since it was founded in 1980 after the split in the Janata Party.
Its first Government in 1996 lasted for a merely 13 days and was dubbed 13 day wonder by Congress. In 1998, the next government of the BJP via the NDA route lasted 13 months while in 1999 it again came to power leading the NDA in the backdrop of the Kargil conflict with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee projecting it as a victory over Pakistan. The largest number of 182 seats was won by BJP in this election.