BJP, SP increase seats, vote share in Uttar Pradesh
Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party have increased the number of seats and the percentage of votes tolled in the parliamentary election in Uttar Pradesh, compared to the last Lok Sabha poll in May 1996.
The Bahujan Samaj Party has also increased its
percentage of votes marginally, but the number of seats held by the party has come down from six in 1996 to four at present.
According to the figures available with the Election Directorate
in Lucknow, the BJP secured 20,369,577 out of the total 55,829,318 votes polled, amounting to 36.48 per cent. This is the
first time that the party crossed the 35 per cent mark. Its vote
percentage in 1991 and 1996 were 32.92 and 33.43 respectively.
Moreover, compared to the previous two Lok Sabha elections, when the BJP won 52 seats, this time it secured 57 of the state's 85 seats.
The Samajwadi Party improved slightly on its
position seatwise, but saw a huge gain in its vote percentage. Against the 20.83 per cent of votes in 1996, this time it garnered 28.69 per cent. The SP's number of seats has gone up from 16 to 20.
The Bahujan Samaj Party performance showed little improvement, winning the same percentage of votes as it did in the last two elections in Uttar Pradesh. In 1996, the BSP gained 20.6
per cent of the votes. However, unlike in the past, this time the BSP contested on its own.
The Congress, which won no seats in Uttar Pradesh, polled just 6.02 per cent of the votes.
UNI
Elections '98
Tell us what you think of this report
|