Amid polarisation, Narendra Modi's magic leaves Lucknow spellbound

The Uttar Pradesh election was seen as a semi-final before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, but the BJP’s landslide victory appears to be more of a continuum of the Narendra Modi wave of 2014 as the saffron party rode on the Prime Minister’s popularity among the people of the northern state and voted almost on the lines of the general election.

BJP had polled an unprecedented 42% votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Its vote share has fallen only marginally in this election to 39.7%. It was Modi magic all along during the party’s election campaign as BJP made its most charismatic leader the face, deciding not to project a chief ministerial candidate since there were too many leaders across caste lines who fancied their chances.

When the BJP chalked out its election campaign, Modi was slated to address only a dozen rallies. This was increased gradually and by the end of the election, Modi had addressed 23 rallies. Three of these rallies were in Modi’s constituency, Varanasi, where the party was reportedly facing a tough challenge on three seats.

Modi’s outreach to the voters over three days appears to be the reason for BJP winning all the Assembly seats in Varanasi. Modi addressed three rallies in the first six phases and two more in Varanasi in the last phase.

While BJP has underlined that it has won this election on the development plank and that the massive victory with over 300 seats is a result of the popularity of various welfare schemes launched by the Modi government since May 2014, the party seemed to spare no effort to polarise the electorate.

Candidates such as Sangeet Som (Sardhana)and Suresh Rana (Thana Bhawan), and senior leaders such as Yogi Adityanath made controversial statements that divided the electorate on communal lines.



Prime Minister Modi himself made the “Kabristan-Shamshan (graveyardcremation ground)” remarks while BJP president Amit Shah coined the “KASAB” acronym for political opponents Congress, SP and BSP.

BJP has won seats such as Deoband, Sardhana, Bahraich, Bijnor, Ghosi, Nakur, Mohammadabad and Shamli, among others, mainly due to polarisation. However, Hindu consolidation did not materialise in Kairana, with Nahid Hasan of SP winning against Mriganka Singh.



The saffron party has done well not only in western UP, where it was traditionally weak, but also in Bundelkhand in the south, making inroads into BSP strongholds. While Jats showed some disenchantment with BJP before the polls began, they decided to vote for the right-wing party as they did in 2014. RLD could win only its traditional Chaprauli seat in Baghpat district. BSP was not seen as a strong force throughout the campaign and this helped the BJP win new territories.

The decision to field kin of senior party leaders did not work for the BJP, with Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj, who has been active in politics for over a decade, being among the exceptions. While Pankaj won by over a lakh votes, Mriganka, daughter of BJP MP Hukum Singh, and Swami Prasad Maurya’s son Utkrist (Unchahar) lost the polls. Prateek Bhushan, son of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, won from Gonda.

With BJP sweeping the polls and getting a huge majority, most of its prominent candidates romped home to victory. BJP won all the seats in Lucknow, with Brijesh Pathak (Lucknow Central), Ashutosh Tandon Gopalji (Lucknow East) and Rita Bahuguna Joshi (Lucknow Cantt) being the prominent winners.

CM Akhilesh Yadav’s decision to go against his father Mulayam Singh’s wish of aligning with Mukhtar Ansari and not giving a ticket to Atiq Khan in Allahabad helped the BJP. Also, the extremely backward castes supported the BJP.