Sat Feb 08 06:10:00 UTC 2025: **UP By-Elections Show BJP Dominance, BSP and ASP Struggle to Gain Foothold**

Lucknow, Feb 8, 2025 – The recently concluded Uttar Pradesh by-elections, held between November 2024 and February 2025, have highlighted the dominance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the marginalization of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Azad Samaj Party (ASP). Ten seats were contested in total, with BJP securing seven victories and Samajwadi Party (SP) winning two. The counting of votes for the remaining seat, Milkipur, is underway.

While BSP and ASP participated in most of the by-elections, their performance has been significantly underwhelming. BSP did not even field a candidate in Milkipur. Preliminary results indicate that BSP and ASP candidates suffered heavy defeats across all ten seats, with vote margins ranging from tens of thousands to over a lakh votes in several constituencies. For instance, in Meerapur, ASP received 61,643 fewer votes than the winning candidate, while BSP secured a mere 3248 votes. Similarly, massive defeats were recorded in Kundarki, Gaziabad, Kairana, Karhal, and other constituencies. Even in Milkipur, as of this report, ASP candidate Santosh Chaudhary had received only 1337 votes.

Analysts attribute ASP’s poor performance to overconfidence following a single Lok Sabha seat win, leading them to contest by-elections where they lacked substantial support. The BSP’s decision to boycott the by-elections after the November 2024 results also seems to have had a negligible impact on the outcome. The results clearly illustrate a two-horse race between the BJP and SP, leaving little space for BSP and ASP to make any significant gains. The Milkipur results, as they unfold, are expected to further solidify this trend.

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