BJP’s poor showing in UP puts spotlight on CM Yogi
Still, the possible impact the poll results could have on Adityanath’s position in the state and the party’s internal politics will be watched on the road to the 2027 assembly polls.
In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the BJP stormed back to power with a decisive mandate, giving the incumbent chief minister Yogi Adityanath a second successive term in a result seen as an affirmation of his staunch Hindutva politics, coupled with stern action against criminals and a determined investment push.
Now, with the BJP receiving a drubbing at the hands of the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Congress alliance in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the focus is back on Adityanath, although most leaders who spoke to HT said he remains the party’s tallest leader in the state, and that the party may have paid a price for not giving him enough say in the selection of candidates.
Still, the possible impact the poll results could have on Adityanath’s position in the state and the party’s internal politics will be watched on the road to the 2027 assembly polls.
In the 2017 assembly elections, Adityanath emerged as the surprise choice for chief minister, built on his standing as the head of an influential monastery, with a slew of development and infrastructure projects and a crackdown on crime. Riding on the performance of both the Union and the state governments, the BJP won the 2019 Lok Sabha as well as the 2022 assembly elections.
Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the face of the BJP election campaign in 2024, the party was dependent on its star campaigner Adityanath to counter the Opposition. Adityanath addressed 169 public meetings, 15 prabudh sammelans and held 13 roadshows to give momentum to the party’s campaign.
The BJP faced a tough contest from the INDIA bloc in its stronghold, the Varanasi region, where Modi won the Varanasi seat albeit by a reduced margin. The BJP also won the Bhadohi seat but lost the Chandauli, Ghazipur and Jaunpur seats. Union minister and two-term MP Mahendra Nath Pandey was defeated by SP candidate Birendra Singh in Chandauli.
In Gorakhpur division, the home turf of Adityanath, the BJP won five seats – Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Deoria, Kushinagar and Bansgaon. Polling in Gorakhpur region was held in the seventh phase; Adityanath camped in Gorakhpur to monitor and give a push to the party campaign there. His effort paid dividends as the BJP won the Domariyaganj and Gonda seats as well.
“In the Lok Sabha elections, rather than state factors, national ones are in play. Despite an SP surge in the 2022 assembly elections, Adityanath ensured that the BJP returned to power with a comfortable majority of seats. He has the capability to pull the BJP out of the quagmire of defeat to victory in the 2027 assembly elections,” said SK Singh, a political analyst.
A BJP leader said Adityanath’s role was limited in the selection of candidates, suggesting that this could have played a part in the party’s poor showing in the state. Another leader said there may have been strong anti-incumbency against a majority of the two and three-term MPs. Among the 62 MPs who won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the state, 55 were repeated in the 2024 elections. Many lost. During a meeting, state leaders briefed the central leadership about possible anti-incumbency, but were ignored, he said.