UP Assembly polls: BJP ahead in 290 seats out of 403

The election results reveal that the issue struck a resonance with the people and the electorate of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand handed the saffron party one of the biggest mandates unparalleled in the history of Indian elections. In what comes as a major heartache for Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, all exit polls have unanimously predicted that the SP-Congress combine would be relegated to the second spot when the election results are announced on Saturday.

With just 40 seats in the assembly, the half way mark is at 20 and crossing the half way line holds the key for a stable govt in the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party won a landslide victory in India’s most important battleground state on Saturday, in a personal triumph that will strengthen his claim to a second term as national leader. With its stupendous victory-bagging more than 300 seats and besting its previous high of 221 at the height of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement in 1991-the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shown the political nous needed to earn this. What do other exit polls sayThe News 24 – Today’s Chanakya predicts 53 seats for the BJP and 15 for the Congress.

While the BJP+ is expected to get anywhere between 160-190 seats, the SP-Congress is likely to get stuck at 110-130. A tally of say less than 140 would be considered weak, in our view.

The AAP – an anti-corruption party led by Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal – was tipped in some surveys to win Punjab.

The Congress suffered an equally humiliating defeat in neighbouring Uttarakhand too.

Investors counting on further economic reforms – including the launch of a national sales tax – will welcome a strong BJP win and see its consolidation of power as a boost for economic growth. He already looks well-placed for re-election in 2019 over the centre-left Congress Party, which the BJP ousted in 2014.

The election offered some solace to Congress, which managed to capitalise on the intense anti-incumbent sentiment towards Punjab’s previously ruling party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, to win power in the fertile northern state.

The ruling SAD was demolished with the party winning one and leading in 13 while its coalition partner BJP led in three seats.

News24: Congress (15+), BJP (53).

The only crumb of comfort for Congress – which has led India for most of the post-independence period – was in Punjab where initial trends gave it the edge.

In fact, the loss of face for both regional opponents and the Congress could see Indian democracy turning into a uni-multipolar party system with the BJP holding centrestage.

The win seems all the more enormous considering BJP won only 47 seats in 2012 Assembly elections in the state.

As for AAP, in Punjab, it has gone from non-existent in 2012 to between 60-70 seats according to exit polls.

“This is a historic victory for the BJP; a victory for development and good governance”, Modi told his 28 million followers on Twitter.