Mulayam Singh’s SP set to form government in UP

The Congress party, which is in power at the centre, has received a big blow at the hustings with the party emerging a loser in four out of the five states that went to the polls.

By evening on Tuesday, even as counting of votes was in progress in Uttar Pradesh, the Samjwadi Party (SP) led by Mulayam Singh Yadav had won 111 seats and was leading in an equal number of other constituencies, with a likely win in 222 of the 403-member assembly constituencies.

The Ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was a distant second with a likely win in 78 constituencies. By 4.30 pm, the BSP had won 39 seats and was set to gain another 39, surrendering 128 seats it had won in the last assembly elections.

The Congress clearly detracted voters despite its star campaigner and general secretary Rahul Gandhi, sister Priyanka Vadra and her family trying their best to impress voters in Uttar Pradesh, once the bastion of the party.

Neither did the main opposition at the centre, the Bhartiya Janata Party, impress voters in any of the states, except perhaps in Punjab where it is fighting the elections in alliance with the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal.

The Congress-RLD alliance has won 18 seats and was leading in another 19, with likely gain of 37 and a loss of 5 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won 23 and was hopping to win a total 49 seats with a loss of 2 seats.