UP Election: Unemployment has been a major issue for voters in UP.
A poll of exit polls has predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Yogi Adityanath, will return to power in Uttar Pradesh. Six exit polls claimed that the BJP will get a clear majority. An aggregate of exit polls shows the BJP and its allies are likely to get 241 seats out of the total 403 while Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party is expected to get 142 seats.
In 2017, BJP got 39.6 per cent votes while Samajwadi Party got 21.8 percent votes. In 2017, the winning margin in 120-125 seats was between 500 and 15,000 votes. In such a scenario, if votes swing towards any party, results could change substantially in many assembly constituencies.
NDTV's team of reporters, who were doing ground reporting from all over UP for the last one and a half months, concluded that there is no wave in favour of a single party.
Ajay Singh who was reporting from Varanasi said, “There are no corruption charges against BJP or chief minister Yogi Adityanath. During his regime law and order situation improved, people got free ration during Covid-19 pandemic, Ram temple construction is in progress and organisational capacity of Sangh and BJP has become stronger. All these factors could be beneficial for BJP but Akhilesh Yadav has made strong alliances with a solid caste equation.”
According to Sanket Upadhyay, in 2012, Samajwadi Party's slogan was ‘Ummed ki cycle' (Cycle of hope) but in 2022 their slogan is ‘Nai hawa hai, Nai SaPa hai' (It's a new Samajwadi Party).
Sourabh Shukla said the narrative around hijab controversy was built during the first phase of polling but now the issue has vanished from social media platforms and mainstream media. “Ukraine has become the new issue. In western UP hijab row did not create any magic for BJP and now they have changed the narrative,” he added.
Both BJP and Samajwadi Party prepared strong and sensitive campaign strategies keeping the caste equations in mind. However, unemployment has been a major issue for voters.
Whether these issues will translate into votes will be known only on March 10, when the results of the UP assembly elections will be out.