The winning combo of Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav gave a befitting reply to the BJP in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh as the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance bettered its tally in this Lok Sabha election.

The opposition-backed INDIA bloc won 16 out of 27 seats in the region, and the BJP-led NDA was restricted to 11 seats.

SP, which had won only one seat in this area in the last 2019 elections, has presented a tough challenge to the BJP by winning 15 seats this time. At the same time, Congress has strengthened INDI alliance by winning Allahabad seat in Purvanchal region.

Compared to last time, this time NDA has suffered a total loss of 9 seats in Purvanchal.

According to the data, out of 27 seats in this region in 2019, BJP had won 18 and its ally Apna Dal (S) had won two seats. But this time BJP has got only 10 seats in this area. At the same time, Apna Dal (S) has won only one of the two seats.

SP captured the Robertsganj seat by defeating Rinki Kol. SP had fielded former BJP MP Chhotalal Kharwar on this seat.

In 2019, SP had got only one seat in Purvanchal that too of Azamgarh from where SP President Akhilesh Yadav contested. But after winning the assembly elections, he left this seat and BJP captured this seat in the by-elections.

But this time the tables have turned in the elections. According to the latest election results, SP has not only taken back the Azamgarh seat, but also seven seats won by BJP in 2019 which are Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Machlishahar, Ballia, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar and Chandauli seats, apart from NDA’s partner Apna Dal (S) it succeeded in capturing the Robertsganj seat. Whereas Congress has captured the Allahabad seat which was held by BJP.

Not only this, apart from BJP, the INDI alliance wrested 6 seats won by BSP in 2019. These seats are Lalganj, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Shravasti, Ghosi and Ambedkar Nagar.

If seen in another way, then it can be said that while BJP has suffered the loss of 9 seats in Purvanchal, the graph of BSP has gone to zero.

The trend of voters of Varanasi, the hottest seat of Purvanchal, has also disappointed the BJP. ‘UP ke ladke’ (Rahul-Akhilesh) have created a big political upheaval in the stronghold of Modi-Yogi.

This can be gauged from the fact that while the margin of victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who contested from Varanasi for the third time, has reduced by more than half compared to the last election, cabinet minister Mahendra Nath Pandey, faced defeat ,who contested from Chandauli after scoring a hat-trick from Chandauli.

Similarly, Union Minister Anupriya Patel, who presented herself as the working face of NDA, also got victory after a tough struggle. Whereas Maneka Gandhi, who was in the race to become MP for the ninth time, also faced defeat.

Political analysts believe there are many reasons for the poor performance of BJP. Reasons like disappointment among party workers, letting outsiders contest elections and betting on old faces despite opposition were some of it.

The biggest reason is the changed strategy of SP. The way SP this time, removing the tag of being the patron of Yadavs and Muslims and giving a new social engineering formula by placing more bets on non-Yadav OBCs and Dalits, has also had its impact. Apart from this, SP has also been successful in taking the issue of changing the Constitution and ending reservation to every OBC and Dalit. Its effect is visible on the election results.