Did BSP Really Dent The Opposition In Uttar Pradesh Or Did It Hurt The BJP? Here Are Some Numbers

The speculation that once all-powerful Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has helped the Bharatiya Janata Party/National Democratic Alliance (BJP/NDA) while denting the opposition’s chances is ripe all around.

But did it?

In a stark contrast, at quite a number of seats, the BSP/SBSP (Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party) candidates divided the votes of BJP candidates, thus ensuring their defeat and victory of opposition candidates on such seats.

While in few seats analysed here, the BSP candidate seems to have made no difference. In most of the seats, the BSP candidate stood in the way of BJP's victory.

One glance at the margin of loss for the runner up, mostly the BJP/NDA candidate, and number of votes garnered by the BSP candidate, who stood third on the seat, makes it amply clear.

Most of these BSP candidates, who were Brahmins and ‘upper castes’, seem to have been chosen craftly keeping in mind the caste arithmetic of BJP’s intact voter base.