YOGI WINS BATTLE OF SLOGANS

Yogi Adityanath's divisive call trumps SP chief Akhilesh Yadav's unity narrative

- Ashish Misra

UTTAR PRADESH

Byelections in: 9 seats

Won by: NDA 7; SP 2

The atmosphere at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state office in Lucknow was electric on November 23. As the BJP surged ahead in the byelection results for nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, leaders and workers gathered in droves, celebrating to the beat of drums. By 3 pm, with the BJPled alliance's victory confirmed in seven seats, the celebrations hit a crescendo as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath arrived, marking the moment with firecrackers and reiterating his slogan, "batenge to katenge" (Divided, we perish).