Assembly elections 2017: Top winners and losers

“BJP has reached new heights in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh and changed the political picture of the country”, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said amid scenes of jubilation at party offices in UP.

The BJP meeting also took a review of the party’s candidates who had contested the state assembly election.

BJP chief Amit Shah stated Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the tallest leader of the country since Independence.

The state’s current ruling Samajwadi Party led by young Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, in alliance with Congress, were leading in only 73 seats. This historic win for BJP is the victory of development and good governance.

“The victory shows that now there is no place for politics of caste and appeasement in Indian politics”. The BJP, he added, would form governments in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar blamed the poor performance in Uttar Pradesh on the BJP’s politics of polarization. Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha said, “It is a monumental setback”. “We will win in Uttar Pradesh”. Sardesai, a former Congress leader, remained non-committal, saying his party prefers working around a common minimum programme.

Uttar Pradesh is only one of seven Indian states holding elections this year.

Thursday’s exit polls also forecast a neck-and-neck race between Congress and the anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party in northern Punjab state, where the ruling coalition, of which the BJP is a member, faces a drubbing. If BJP wins UP, it would be a return to power for the party in the politically significant and volatile state after 15 years. The balance of power now lay in the hands of smaller parties including Goa Forward and the MGP.

UP election results 2017: BJP supporters celebrate the party’s big win. The BJP is leading in over 55 seats in the state. “People in Manipur have rejected the Congress government”, Shah said, while stating that there would not be a re-think on alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab. The Akals and BJP had just 18 seats, with as many as 10 ministers worsted in the battle.

“With demonetisation, the Prime Minister converted these state elections into a referendum on his record”.

Among other winners were Neelkanth Tiwari of BJP from Varanasi South, Swami Prasad Maurya of BJP from Padrauna, Swati Singh of BJP from Sarojini Nagar in Lucknow, Mukhtar Ansari of BSP from Mau, Independent candidate Raghuraj Pratap Singh from Kunda, and Independent candidate Aman Mani Tripathi from Nautanwa. While it failed to open its innings in Goa, its showing in Punjab of 20 seats so far is less than the sweep they had been expecting, and not quite enough to make for a formidable Opposition.

A positive result for the BJP will indicate that voters have given their stamp of approval to the economic policies of the central government led by Modi.