Lucknow, Mar 14: The BJP reigned supreme on nearly 70 per cent constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh despite losing 15 seats in the 2022 assembly polls, even as the Samajwadi Party (SP) and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) showed a rise in the region.

 

 

While the BJP completely swept some districts like Agra, Mathura, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddh Nagar, the Opposition alliance too scored 100 per cent in Shamli and Moradabad, and put up a good show in Muzaffarnagar and Meerut. In the 2017 assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had swept over 300 of the 403 seats across Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in the country. The party won 255 seats this year, while the SP with its allies notched up victory on 125 seats of the state, nearly double from its last electoral outing.

 

 

 

In the 126 seats across 24 districts of western Uttar Pradesh, the BJP had won 100 (or 79 per cent) of the seats in 2017. This time, its tally stood at 85 (or 67 per cent). The SP and the RLD together won 41 (or 32 per cent) of the 126 seats in the region. The Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD, which was reduced to a single seat in the 2017 polls, fought on 33 seats this time and won eight of them. The BJP lost all three seats in Shamli district, including a sitting minister from Thana Bhawan, four of the seven seats in Meerut, and four of the six seats in Muzaffarnagar – all three are Jat-dominated districts. It also lost all six seats in Moradabad, three of the four seats in both Rampur and Sambhal districts. The minister's defeat came even as another minister in Ghaziabad won by a margin of over 1 lakh votes and the BJP managed to fully sweep districts like Agra, Mathura, Aligarh -- all three have a sizeable Jat population, Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad and Gautam Buddh Nagar, negating the idea that the recent farmers' agitation had an impact across western Uttar Pradesh, according to poll observers.

 

 

The Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress and others failed to get even a single seat in the region. There is no official demarcation of what constitutes western Uttar Pradesh. Political parties have different organisational structures and classifications for the region. However, 126 assembly constituencies in 24 districts that lie west of Etawah are generally taken to be western Uttar Pradesh.