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The sweeping victory of BJP candidates in the legislative council elections on Tuesday put back the limelight on the saffron outfit’s immense electoral strength that decimated the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party. The council polls expected to be a pointed square-off between the BJP and the SP amid the absence of BSP and Congress ended up with the brute dominance of the BJP, which managed to bag 33 out of 36 seats. 

This huge mandate is against the backdrop of the BJP coming back to power in UP for the second consecutive time. The Congress and BSP were completely decimated in the UP polls, while the SP-led alliance saw a partial resurrection. 

BJP’s thumping victory run in the MLC elections could presumably allow the saffron party to reinforce itself at the grassroots level, which will help determine its electoral fortunes in the run-up to the much-awaited 2024 Lok Sabha elections when PM Narendra Modi would be seeking the third consecutive term. 

Political analysts commented that the BJP once again proved with this win its ability to flatten the opposition’s aspirations to regain lost ground. The MLC polls, which covered 35 local bodies in the state, had even district panchayat as well as gram panchayat members on the electoral rolls, besides the MLAs and MPs.

 BJP’s win in SP’s bastion of Etawah-Farrukhabad local bodies constituency will likely have huge political ramifications taking into account the perceptible dissent between SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav, who has been showing signs of cozying up to the saffron party.

BJP at present has 33 members in the council and will be seeing its member count rising sharply to 66, which will lend the party an opportunity to enjoy a 2/3rd majority in the upper house.

Akhilesh Yadav’s SP, on the other hand, has 17 members, of which six would retire by May 26, reducing its tally to 11. By July 6, 11 more members, elected by the members of the legislative assembly, will retire. Given its strength in the current UP assembly, the SP and its allies will be able to send a maximum of three or four more to the upper house, while BJP is likely to send at least seven. Congress will be wiped off entirely from the council, while the BSP will be reduced to merely one seat.