Today's results will also be seen as a referendum for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's notes ban last year. PM Modi was the face of the BJP's campaign with the party choosing not to project a chief ministerial candidate and seeking votes for PM Modi's policies and development agenda.
Ruling Samajwadi Party's gamble, under Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, to partner with the Congress, spearheaded by its vice president Rahul Gandhi fell flat today. Both parties had to face a drubbing at the hands of PM Modi-led BJP.
Here are the live updates of the UP assembly election results 2017:
Thank you. Long live democracy! https://t.co/hJoGsO5lGA
- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 11, 2017
As the BJP headed for stunning victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, India Inc today said the poll outcome will lead to reforms gaining momentum owing to improved coordination between the Centre and the states.
The BJP's UP chief is among the front runners for Chief Minister's post
Larger than life cutouts of PM Modi and Amit Shah outside the BJP headquarters in Delhi
Uttar Pradesh (UP) Election Results 2017 | ||
UP (403) | Leads+Results (403) | Results (263) |
BJP+ | 324 | 208 |
SP+ | 57 | 40 |
BSP | 19 | 13 |
Others | 3 | 0 |
"If a legitimate party has raised a concern, it should be investigated. I would also like to see how our candidates, leading earlier, were defeated later," Mr Yadav said.
What began like a defeat accepted with utmost humility, outgoing Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav's speech quickly turned sour, laced with sarcasm. "Maybe the people didn't like the expressway we built, maybe they voted in hope of a bullet train in UP," Mr Yadav said at the customary post-election press conference.
"The next government will do better than us," he said, subtly adding, "maybe if the PM has said, debts of farmers all over the country will be forgiven".
An emboldened BJP President Amit Shah was calm and candid and sat with a resolve to answer all questions from reporters at the party headquarters but one: the arithmetic of BJP's votes gain. Shrugging off the question, Mr Shah asked a couple of reporters to not get into details of a Hindu-Muslim vote divide and the combination of vote banks. "The country's poor have connected with PM Modi and that's why BJP won," adding, "people of all castes and communities have picked the BJP".
BJP President Amit Shah credits Uttar Pradesh's landslide victory to PM Modi's development programmes and the hard work of millions of party workers. He said the country's development goes through UP's growth.
Mr Shah gave a special mention to BJP's performance in Amethi and Rae Bareli, traditional strongholds of the Congress, where the party is set to win 6 of the 10 assembly seats.
On Mayawati's accusation of poll rigging by the BJP, Mr Shah said, "I can understand her state of mind," adding that he would not like to comment further.
Mr Shah said the BJP will tomorrow pick chief ministers of four states - Goa and Manipur apart from UP and Uttarakhand - when it welcomes PM Modi at the party headquarters and sit down for a parliamentary board meeting. (Congress is leading in Goa and Manipur at the moment.)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's star power and development agenda is largely being credited for the landslide Uttar Pradesh assembly election victory. But the party says Amit Shah, its president by designation and its chief election strategist during polls, is equally to thank.
A victory sign for the crowds and cameras from BJP President Amit Shah in Delhi
#ResultsWithNDTV | Meanwhile, at the BJP office in Delhi...#ElectionResults pic.twitter.com/FBGLgwf5U9
- NDTV (@ndtv) March 11, 2017
Akhilesh Yadav and Congress alliance no match for PM Modi
It turns out that Akhilesh Yadav's big decisions in his attempt to stretch his political legs far from his father have backfired spectacularly. The 44-year-old Chief Minister today earned the distinction of being vanquished in the BJP's biggest ever result in India's most important state. Of 403 seats, the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is placed to win more than 300. Akhilesh Yadav, on the other hand, had accrued 61, with his junior partner, the Congress, proving party pooper by adding just another eight (based on leads at 1.30 pm).
Bahujan Samaj Party chief has refused to accept that a part of the Muslim vote could have gone to the BJP. She has accused the BJP of tampering with the voting machines. "In 2014 too there were such fears. Press any button but the vote went to BJP," Mayawati has said.
This fan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi shows how its party workers are celebrating the Uttar Pradesh election results and also the Uttarakhand win.
In Rani vs Rani battle in the prestigious Amethi, Garima Singh, the estranged wife of Maharaja of Amethi and Congress leader Sanjay Sihn, fighting on a BJP ticket leads.
Uttar Pradesh election results 2017: BJP now leading in 307 seats. While senior Congress leaders talk of introspection and building regional leaders, the ruling Samajwadi Party are absent from the scene after the drubbing at the hands of PM Modi-led BJP.
And the celebrations continue in Lucknow:
It's not just Uttar Pradesh, the people have indicated Narendra Modi will continue as the Prime Minister after 2019 general elections, says BJP's UP state president Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Sandeep Dikshit says Congress does not build and back leaders
Sandeep Dikshit's willingness to call it like it is has made him an outlier within the Congress, which picked his mother, 74-year-old Sheila Dikshit, as its candidate for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, before it allied with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. Today, as the Congress was reduced to roadkill by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's top-gear win in Uttar Pradesh, Mr Dikshit outlined the party's infirmities.
BJP leading in 299 of UP's 403 seats
UP Election Results 2017 | |
Total Seats | 402/403 |
BJP+ | 293 |
SP + Congress | 81 |
BSP | 19 |
Others | 9 |
Awaited | 1 |
Where to find him? Police is still looking. The rape-accused minister has refused to surrender and has been missing for days.
A Saffron Holi, Suggest Leads, PM Modi Headed For Big UP Prize: 10 Points https://t.co/VNHxSGuJzj #NDTVNewsBeeps pic.twitter.com/1ebW4Iu0EO
- NDTV (@ndtv) March 11, 2017
UP Election Results 2017 | |
Total Seats | 369/403 |
BJP+ | 256 |
SP + Congress | 73 |
BSP | 35 |
Others | 5 |
Awaited | 34 |
#UttarPradeshElection2017 Shivpal Yadav leading from Jaswant Nagar seat. #ElectionResults pic.twitter.com/p5sn1lyJj2
- ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 11, 2017
BJP leading in Uttar Pradesh: Party workers celebrate in Lucknow #ElectionResults pic.twitter.com/SmmoBRNKSV
- ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 11, 2017
UP Election Results 2017 | |
Total Seats | 280/403 |
BJP+ | 186 |
SP + Congress | 65 |
BSP | 25 |
Others | 4 |
Awaited | 120 |
#ResultsWithNDTV | @sambitswaraj to NDTV | Watch this space for #ElectionResults updates: https://t.co/tRiaFUsq2B pic.twitter.com/JDtqZAcKYp
- NDTV (@ndtv) March 11, 2017
Yogendra Yadav, founder Swaraj Abhiyaan
UP Election Results 2017 | |
Total Seats | 135/403 |
BJP+ | 89 |
SP + Congress | 32 |
BSP | 12 |
Others | 2 |
Awaited | 265 |
A life-size cut-out of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been replaced overnight at the Samajwadi Party office in Lucknow. His replacement? Mulayam Singh, the party's 77-year-old founder, whose son Akhilesh Yadav is running for a second consecutive term as Chief Minister.
UP Election Results 2017 | |
Total Seats | 403 |
BJP+ | 5 |
SP + Congress | 3 |
BSP | 2 |
Others | 0 |
Awaited | 393 |
Counting has just begun.
Workers of Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party performed a havan or ritual on Saturday morning, praying for victory just before counting began for what promises to be a game-changing election. The ritual was held not far from the residence in Lucknow of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who is hoping to defy exit poll predictions of a BJP win.
We are winning with 2/3rd majority, SP and BSP will be wiped out:Keshav Prasad Maurya,UP BJP Chief #ElectionResults pic.twitter.com/sbxMLHgNLN
- ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) March 11, 2017