Second innings for UP CM Yogi Adityanath

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 10

The ruling BJP is all set to repeat its governments in UP, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur with Punjab set to witness the formation of the first non-Congress, non-Akali Dal government following an AAP tsunami.

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While the BJP continued its electoral sweep and PM Narendra Modi’s “there’s pro-incumbency for us” remarks rang true, the Congress stood further decimated, losing Punjab, one of the only three states it rules on its own, besides Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

In UP, the BJP scripted history by becoming the first incumbent government to return to power since 1991. It crossed the majority mark of 202 in the 403-member Assembly early in the day. With allies Apna Dal Sonelal and Nishad Party, the BJP was past 272 seats by dusk even as it rode the wave of expanded support, gaining a higher vote share of over 42 per cent as against 39.7 per cent in 2017.

‘Pro-poor policies win’

Lauding BJP workers for ensuring an early Holi by making BJP victorious in four states, PM Modi said the results were a stamp of approval for the party’s pro-poor governance model. Addressing party workers in Delhi, he called results ‘jeet ka chauka’.

The NDA had secured 325 seats and the BJP 312 in 2017 with the party losing 64 segments today, many in the second phase in western UP, where residual anxieties of the year-long farmers’ agitation hurt some saffron candidates though not as much as the SP-RLD combine would have wanted. The RLD gained eight seats at BJP’s expense in this belt.

The strong saffron run in UP left the SP, RLD lagging at half the seats, 112 and eight, respectively, the Congress and BSP decimated at two and one seat each and AICC general secretary Priyanka Vadra’s charisma shattered, with the Congress finishing a distant fourth in India’s electorally most important state. The Congress was down from seven seats in 2017 to two today and its vote share was 2.39 per cent, just ahead of NOTA (0.69 per cent).

While Rahul Gandhi said the party would learn from the verdicts, SP and RLD went home with the consolation of gaining 64 and eight seats, respectively, over their 2017 scores. In Uttarakhand also, the BJP bucked historical trends to retain power, again — a first for a sitting government since the state’s formation in 2000. The Khatima defeat of CM Pushkar Singh Dhami paled in comparison to BJP’s milestone victory that the party credited to PM Narendra Modi’s “sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas aur sabka prayas” slogan and government’s development focus which, leaders said, trumped all caste calculations.

The failure of SP’s attempted caste polarisation was evident in the defeat of OBC leader and BJP turncoat Swami Prasad Maurya who contested on the SP ticket from Fazilnagar and lost by over 36,000 votes.

In Goa, the BJP will form the government for the third time after winning 20 seats in a 40-member House where 21 is the majority mark. It hinted at enlisting the support of Independents after securing a buoyant win that saw late Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal lose to a BJP candidate in Panaji. Utpal had rebelled when the BJP denied him the ticket.

In the 60-member Manipur House, the BJP bagged 32 seats alone and 44 with allies NPP and NPF. CM N Biren Singh is expected to return to the helm in Manipur.

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