This Article is From Mar 06, 2012

Election result: Samajwadi Party wins by a landslide

Election result: Samajwadi Party wins by a landslide
Lucknow: If all trends at this late stage of counting will turn into results, the Samajwadi Party, with 222 seats, will have the happy statistic of having delivered the best performance in UP in two decades. That honour was held by Mayawati for her 2007 performance when she won 206, the first to win a majority in the state since 1991.

The SP has gained a whopping 125 seats over its 2007 tally; the BSP seems to have gifted it most of those - Mayawati's party is down 127 seats. The BJP and Congress have fought a pitched battle all day for third and fourth place. The BJP is likely to end the day at 49 seats, two short of its 2007 tally; the early morning surge was but a chimera. The Congress plus RLD is leading in 39 seats; the Congress alone in 28 seats, six more than in 2007 despite the Rahul Gandhi campaign.   

For the SP, immediately, this means that it will not have to negotiate with anyone to make up the numbers. There has been speculation about a Congress-Samajwadi Party "understanding" that would translate into stability both at the Centre, where the Congress rules and in UP, where the SP now looks very stable on its own.

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