The Samajwadi Party, its ally the RLD and the BSP are competing among themselves and none will come close to the BJP’s tally in upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections 2022, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma has said.
Speaking to News18, Sharma said the opposition parties – Congress, SP-RLD, AIMIM and the Bahujan Samaj Party – will not be able to muster even 100 seats in the 403-seat Assembly, and express confidence that the ruling BJP would net 300-plus seats.
“The SP is competing with the BSP. Either the SP will get one-two seats more than BSP, or BSP will get 1-2 seats more than SP. And don’t take AIMIM lightly. It is also emerging as an important part, although its approach has been negative. The Congress will not get as many seats as it got the last time, but they all will compete among themselves, and none of them will be even closer to BJP in UP,” Sharma said.
“More than 50% votes and more than 300 seats will be won by the BJP. The Congress, SP, BSP and AIMIM will not cross the three-digit mark. All of them will get under 100 seats. The BJP will win 300 seats,” the deputy CM added.
Sharma’s statements were in response to News18’s Poll of Polls before the upcoming Assembly elections in five states. The Poll of Polls for Uttar Pradesh showed the BJP returning to power for a consecutive term but with a lower seat count. The prediction by pollsters showed the Samajwadi Party-led alliance making significant gains.
The Poll of Polls predicted the BJP winning 235-249 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, comfortably crossing the halfway mark of 202. Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party was predicted to get 137-147 seats, while Mayawati’s BSP could win 7-13 seats. The Congress, whose campaign is led by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, may have to contend with three to seven seats as per the Poll of Polls.
The BJP had swept to power with 312 seats, while the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP managed 47. Mayawati’s BSP had to contend with 19 seats and the Congress was relegated to the fourth spot in the politically significant state with just seven seats. The tenure of the current UP assembly ends on May 14, 2022.
Much of how the BJP performs will depend on how it managed its caste equation in the state. The exit of minister and OBC leader Swati Prasad Maurya followed by more than 13 MLAs from the Backward Caste dealt a major blow to the ruling party in recent weeks. Maurya and a majority of the MLAs joined the Samajwadi Party but the BJP clawed back into the game by welcoming Aparna Yadav, the wife of Akhilesh Yadav’s half-brother, into the party.
The BJP has also taken aim at the SP’s list of candidates. “People accused in riots, murders and kidnappings are becoming leaders today and joining hands with the opposition. Anarchic elements will get together with the support of the opposition,” Dinesh Sharma said while speaking to News18.
Sharma also dismissed any perceived competition from the SP-RLD combine for Jat votes. “SP and RLD are competing against each other. The public knows that this coalition is only for opportunism. Neither do they have any loyalty towards their coalition, nor are they able to save their candidates. Look at their candidate from Jewar, Alka Bandhana ji who refused to contest the election. There are 3-4 constituencies where these candidates have refused to fight,” Sharma said.
Party colleague and Union minister Anurag Thakur agreed with Sharma. “We have delivered what we promised five years ago. In the last Akhilesh Yadav government, there was no law and order. That is why we said we will give corruption-free UP. And after five years, there is no goonda raj anymore,” Thakur said.
Reacting to the Poll of Polls, Thakur said the BJP would score “triple century” again. “We scored triple century in 2017 and 2019 (Lok Sabha elections). We will score triple century in 2022 as well. Pollsters can say whatever they want, we will win 300-plus seats… We don’t do politics of caste. We work for vikas and saath.”
Turncoat Swami Prasad Maurya also dismissed the poll predictions to say the BJP will lose the elections.
“Results do differ from what the exit polls predict. We believe in our agenda and our policies. I was also enticed in the name of Modi ji. When Modi ji made comments about lower caste people in the past, I thought the BJP has reformed. But the last five years proved it wrong. The BJP’s character is still the same,” Maurya said.
“The SP is standing with the people. The mass exodus of ministers and MLAs from BJP are the faces of minorities in the state. The minorities who formed BJP’s government once will bring them down,” he added.
The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be held in seven phases on the following dates: February 10 (Thursday), February 14 (Monday), February 20 (Sunday), February 23 (Wednesday), February 27 (Sunday), March 3 (Thursday) and March 7 (Monday). The Uttar Pradesh election results 2022 will be declared on March 10.
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