Uttar Pradesh, India's most politically significant state which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, witnessed an epic battle between the ruling NDA and the opposition INDIA bloc comprising Samajwadi Party and Congress on Tuesday.
Even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat for a third time, his National Democratic Alliance (NDA) faced a shocking result in UP, which was the BJP's big bastion in the past two general elections.
According to the Election Commission figures, the BJP secured 33 seats and its allies got three (the Rashtriya Lok Dal won in two constituencies and Apna Dal (Soneylal) was victorious in one).
On the other hand, the INDIA bloc made a stunning comeback and won 43 seats. While Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party won 37 seats, Congress secured six Lok Sabha constituencies.
Chandrashekhar of the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) won from the Nagina seat.
ALSO READ | Lok Sabha Election Results 2024
While the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party contested 62 seats, the Congress fought 17. The BJP stuck to its old ally, Apna Dal (Sonelal), and also brought in Jayant Chaudhary's RLD and OP Rajbhar's Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party into the NDA front.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP alone won 62 of the 80 seats, while the BSP and Samajwadi Party, then allies, won 10 and five seats, respectively.