UP election result broke myth, cut BJP tally: Akhilesh Yadav

LUCKNOW: In his first reaction over Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) record victory in 2022 Assembly polls where his party has emerged as the only challenger to the saffron tide, Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday thanked the electorate for their support. He said the poll results, declared on Thursday, have proved that BJP's seat count can be brought down and that SP will continue to work in that direction in the days to come.
He also congratulated all the candidates of the SP-led alliance who have been declared elected and urged them to serve the people as a part of their duty and with all the responsibility. "I thank each and every student, unemployed youth, teachers, ad hoc teachers, women, those who supported the idea of reintroducing old pension scheme to government officials, farmers, labourers and professionals who have shown faith in us," he said.
Earlier in the day, he took to Twitter to highlight the brighter side of the election results for SP with regards to its performance. "People of Uttar Pradesh have increased our seats by 2.5 times and vote share by 1.5 times. We have shown that BJP's seat count can be reduced. We will continue to reduce it further. We have demolished most of the myths and will soon demolish the rest of it. Our struggle will continue in public interest," he tweeted in Hindi.
The BJP and its allies won a total of 273 out of the 403 seats in the 2022 UP Assembly polls the results of which were declared on Thursday. The Samajwadi Party bagged 111 seats by itself and another 14 seats were won by its alliance partners. Though SP could not make it to the magic figure, its vote share increased to 32.1% in these polls as compared to 22.8 in 2017 Assembly elections.
In 2012 UP elections, SP had got 29% of the votes but was able to form a majority government led by Akhilesh Yadav as the chief minister.