The ancient city of Varanasi was in a festive mood as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has once again filed his nomination papers from the Varanasi on May 14 for the Lok Sabha poll. Prior to filing his nomination papers, when Prime Minister Modi was going in the streets of Varanasi in a massive Road Show with his trusted comrade and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and others, the mood in holy city was electric. It was so reassuring for the saffron party leaders and workers that it is going to demolish their rivals in the Lok Sabha poll.
Surely, if the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has to retain power for the third time in a row, the results of UP are very crucial. If political pundits are to be believed, UP is once again not disappointing the BJP. We all know that the UP has 80 Lok Sabha seats. Of course, it is a big number.
Like in the past, Uttar Pradesh is not only deciding the present of Indian politics, but also its future. It is an old saying in political circles that the path to the throne of Delhi passes through UP. That is, the party that has the most seats in UP will have the easiest path to reach the Prime Minister’s chair. This is the reason why political parties are leaving no stone unturned to win the 80 seats of UP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, contrary to political manoeuvring, political analysts believe that this time the results of the Lok Sabha elections in UP will not be unexpected. The BJP will repeat its performance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The formidable and invincible Modi-Yogi duo will once again give a charismatic performance. In fact, in political circles, the Modi-Yogi duo has become a guarantee of victory, in front of which the opposition also appears weak.
If the BJP has entered the electoral fray with the goal of winning all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, then it is also thanks to their confidence in this pair. The Prime Minister has praised Yogi’s development model from public platforms many times. The Prime Minister is also claiming victory on all seats in UP through this model. As the Prime Minister also said in his recent election recent rally in Amroha, ” Yogi has shown what governance is. What is law and order? What is development, and that is why records will be broken this time under Yogi’s leadership. This time the record of 2014 and 2019 will be broken and UP will create history.”
The 2014 Lok Sabha elections proved to be a milestone in UP’s electoral journey. BJP’s political exile in UP ended this year. At that time, there was no alliance in front of BJP. The BJP won 71 out of 80 seats, securing about 43 percent of the vote. The Samajwadi Party won five seats while the Congress was reduced to 2 seats. BSP’s account could not even be opened.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP contested the elections on the strength of the Modi wave and Yogi’s work. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had only completed his two-year in office. The Samajwadi Party and BSP came together to stop Narendra Modi. RLD also supported him. However, the election results were in favour of BJP. BJP won 61 seats with about 50 per cent vote share. BSP got 10 seats, SP got 5 seats and only one seat came in Congress’s account.
After 2019, Yogi built the image of a strong and tough Chief Minister, which culminated in the form of bulldozers in Uttar Pradesh. This somehow became the election symbol of BJP in the 2022 assembly elections. The Chief Minister had turned the election into a virtual referendum due to his performance on the law and order front in the state. BJP made a historic comeback in the elections and the cycle of the Samajwadi Party, which had been going on for three decades, came to a complete halt. BJP’s vote percentage in UP has also remained above 40 percent continuously since 2014.
The situation is quite different in the 2024 elections compared to the last two Lok Sabha elections. This time SP has joined hands with Congress while BSP is contesting alone. RLD is also with BJP this time. NDA has also formed alliances with regional parties like Apna Dal (S), Nishad Party and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party to strike a caste equation.
If BJP is in a better position in this Lok Sabha election in UP, then along with the achievements of the Modi government at the Centre, the Yogi model has a significant contribution. The way Prime Minister Narendra Modi implemented the schemes at the grassroots level in the centre. The way they brought prosperity in the lives of the poor, youth, women and farmers, Yogi established the rule of good governance in UP. If we look at Yogi’s good governance on the basis of figures, it is satisfying to know that not a single riot took place during his seven-year tenure. During the time of previous Chief Ministers, on average, there was a riot every third-fourth day. It is not hidden from anyone that earlier, professional mafia and criminals used to spread terror under the patronage of power.
In Yogi Raj, the mafia was reined in. The public in UP is now fearless, and the criminals are afraid of the law. The police have cracked down on criminals, mafia and rioters. As a result, Uttar Pradesh has become crime-free, fear-free and riot-free. Due to the fear of the police in the state, big criminals and mafia have either fled the state or surrendered.
The central government also gave full support in implementing development schemes in UP. This is the reason why the schemes of the Centre yielded good results in UP. Due to which there has been a qualitative improvement in the economy of UP. The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of the state has doubled to 25 lakh crores as compared to the year 2016-17. The state government has set a target to make the state’s economy a one trillion dollar economy by 2027. Where the state budget was Rs 3.46 lakh crore in 2016-17, it has more than doubled to Rs 7.36 lakh crore in 2024-25. Due to these figures of development, BJP is claiming to achieve the target of Mission 80 in UP. Who will win in the Lok Sabha elections is hidden in the womb of the future, but it is certain that the trust of the people of UP on the Modi-Yogi duo remains intact. Ends.
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