How Mayawati Played Spoiler For INDIA Bloc In Uttar Pradesh

The BJP finished this Lok Sabha election with 240 seats - far fewer than the 370 it wanted and well short of the 303 it won in 2019. It has enough - thanks to NDA partners' 53 - to form the government for a third time, but it could have been different had Mayawati led her BSP into the INDIA bloc.

A chunk of the BJP's lost seats came from Uttar Pradesh - a state it has dominated since the 'Modi wave' of 2014. In 2019 the party won 62 seats and nearly 50 per cent of the votes, while its ally, the Apna Dal (Sonelal), added two more. This time the BJP got 33 and its vote share fell to 41.3 per cent.