DEHRADUN/ROORKEE: Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (
BSP), which had a significant say in UP politics for a number of years, could win just a single seat in the state this time.
In contrast, the party managed to win two seats in
Uttarakhand
. While BSP's Mohammad Shahzad won from Laksar, the party's Manglaur candidate Sarvat Kareem Ansari also emerged victorious.
Besides, the party ended up second in the poll race on two other seats in
Haridwar
district -- Khanpur and Bhagwanpur. At Khanpur, its candidate, Ravindra Singh, got 31,915 votes and lost by a margin of 6,852 votes to independent candidate Umesh Kumar. Similarly, at Bhagwanpur, BSP candidate
Subodh Rakesh
was defeated by a margin of 4,811 by Mamta Rakesh of
Congress.
While the party fared well in Haridwar, it could not put up a good show in Udham Singh Nagar district, which was regarded as another strong bastion of the party.
Party leaders meanwhile claimed that lack of support from minority community voters affected their performance. "We tried hard to mobilise minority voters, but they shifted towards Congress at the last minute. This upset our calculations," said Shish Pal Singh, the party's state president, who had contested from Haridwar's Jwalapur seat and came third.
During the first polls in the state in 2002, BSP had won seven seats (five from Haridwar and two from US Nagar districts), securing a 11.2% vote share. In 2007, its vote share went up slightly to 11.7% and the party won on eight seats, which is its best performance till date. In 2012, its vote share went up further to 12.3% but it could get just three seats - all from Haridwar. In 2017, the party had failed to open its account in the Himalayan state.
This year, BSP had contested on 54 of the 70 seats and secured a vote share of 4.8%.