By Faisal Fareed, Twocircles.net
Do you win a state election by winning seats across the state, or is it enough to completely dominate a few regions and draw a blank in others? Well, the latter will work just as fine as long you do it well. Take the example of the Samajwadi Party in 2012 UP elections, which won 224 seats out of the 403 seats, even as it failed to open its account in nine districts. In the coming elections, all parties are paying special attention to districts where they won nothing to ensure that they can add to their haul of the last elections.
In 2012, Akhilesh Yadav’s charisma was at an all-time high, yet the party could not win any seat in nine districts—Kaushambi, Hamirpur, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Baghpat, Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Mathura and Shamli.
But the SP had the credit of sweeping all seats in 13 districts—Ambedkar Nagar, Balrampur, Barabanki, Shrawasti, Bhadohi, Sultanpur, Kannauj, Auraiyya, Etah, Etawah, Mainpuri, Sambhal and Amroha.
Similar is the case with Bahujan Samaj Party. It won 80 seats in 2012 but it failed to win any seat in 34 districts. The districts include Ambedkar Nagar, Balrampur, Barabanki, Shrawasti, Bhadohi, Sultanpur, Kannauj, Auraiyya, Etah, Etawah, Mainpuri, Sambhal, Amroha, Shamli, Moradabad, Meerut, Hapur, Aligarh, Pilibhit, Lucknow, Raerbareilly, Amethi, Faizabad, Farrukhabad, Kanpur Nagar, Pratapgarh, Gonda, Sidharth Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Deoria, Mau, Jaunpur and Ghazipur. Needless to say, the party will be looking to improve its record in these areas.
Congress, which is now in alliance with the SP, had a dismal record in 2012. It failed to win a single seat in 51 districts. Even Congress strongholds like Amethi and Rae Bareilly gave only one MLA to the Congress. The BJP too failed to open its account in 44 districts.
Parties are now focussing on these districts to improve their tally. SP also had first declared seats for over 143 seats which it had lost in 2012, but the list became redundant due to the severe infighting.
These statistics cannot be however taken for inference as in 2014 Lok Sabha polls all calculations were upset with BJP emerging as the biggest player after winning 71 assembly seats in UP.