Maharashtra: Congress rises from ashes, tops state with 13 seats after winning just one in 2019

LUCKNOW: In a stunning setback to NDA in UP, SP-Congress combine won 43 Lok Sabha seats, restricting BJP and its allies to just 36 which was a loss of 28 seats compared to the 64 seats that NDA won in 2019. BJP vote share dropped from 49.97% in 2019 to just over 41% this time.
SP and Congress won 37 and 6 seats, respectively — a significant rise of 37 seats than in 2019 when the two had together won six seats.
Smriti Irani was among the seven Union ministers who lost in the state. Irani’s loss to Gandhi family loyalist KL Sharma in Amethi by a margin of over 1.6 lakh votes evinced keen interest as she had defeated Rahul Gandhi in this seat last time by over 55,000 votes.'
While PM Narendra Modi and defence minister Rajnath Singh saw their victory margins falling, Rahul won by over 3.9 lakh votes. SP won all five seats from where members of the Yadav first family contested — Kannauj (Akhilesh Yadav), Mainpuri (Dimple Yadav), Badaun (Aditya Yadav), Farrukhabad (Akshay Yadav) and Azam garh (Dharmendra Yadav).
SP’s emphatic win was a perceptible increase compared to 2019 when the party, in alliance with BSP, could win only five seats.
Congress, too, sprung a surprise by winning six seats including both its stronghold of Rae Bareli and Amethi. Congress also won from Saharanpur after a gap of 40 years.

Nagina was won by Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) chief Chandrashekhar Azad, in a development that endorsed his political rise in west UP. At the same time, Mayawati-led BSP faced a complete decimation with its vote share dipping from over 19% in 2019 to just around 9% this time, turning the spotlight back on the Dalit outfit’s sharply plunging political relevance in UP.
BJP ally RLD managed to win its two seats of Baghpat and Bijnor, thereby coming back to national politics after its two consecutive decimations in the previous two Lok Sabha polls at the hands BJP.
But BJP’s other ally Apna Dal could retain only one seat, Mirzapur, from where Union minister Anupriya Patel won. Two other allies, SPSP and NISHAD party, lost in Ghosi and Sant Kabir Nagar, respectively.
SP vote share increased from 18.11% in 2019 — it had then contested on 37 seats — to over 33% this time when it contested on 62 seats. The increase was essentially because of the comprehensive consolidation of Muslims behind the alliance. SP is also reported to have received the support of a section of OBCs and Dalits who had drifted away from BSP and BJP.
SP’s significantly improved tally bolstered its position as BJP’s main rival in Uttar Pradesh, in what could potentially set a poll narrative in the run-up to the 2027 UP polls.