How UP Was Won

The BJP took the lead on the development and law & order narrative, and used social schemes to overcome caste divides

- Prashant Srivastava & Ashish Misra

FOR SOMEONE COMMITTED to renunciation as a way of life, it was, ironically, the promise of material benefit that has helped Yogi Adityanath return to power in Uttar Pradesh. Gleaming highways, an international airport, Ujjwala or Ujala, Saubhagya, Swachhata… the BJP’s ‘double-engine sarkar’—Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the state—it would seem, has delivered El Dorado to the electorate.

On March 10, the people of UP—whose status as India’s most politically powerful bloc, controlling 80 Lok Sabha seats, is by now a well-worn cliché—rewarded the effort, handing the incumbent BJP government the distinction of being the first to be voted a second term since 1985 and Yogi Adityanath the honour of being the first chief minister in the state to return to power after serving a full five-year term. The BJP won 255 seats on its own in the 403-member legislative assembly, a comedown from the 312 seats it won in 2017, but a clear majority nevertheless. The party also managed to increase its vote share—from 39.7 per cent in 2017 to 41.3 per cent this election. Together with the allies, the tally stood at 273, from 326 in 2017.