BJP maintained good conversion rate in all phases, second and seventh ones proved to be a close contest
India Today
The BJP maintained a high conversion rate throughout the campaign, with the second and seventh phases proving to be a close contest.
As has been the trend in recent years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept western Uttar Pradesh that voted in the first phase of the 2022 assembly elections in the state. The momentum thus gained perhaps helped the ruling party sail through in the rest of the phase despite the supposed disadvantages of five years of incumbency.
However, the Samajwadi Party-led alliance fought hard in the second and last phase. That helped the alliance trump the BJP-led coalition's vote share in both phases. But thanks to better votes for seat conversion rate, the BJP won more seats than the rivals even in those two phases despite getting fewer votes.
READ | Five factors that might have cost Samajwadi Party the election in Uttar Pradesh
The phase-wise data offers an interesting insight into how the vote and seat share of the BJP-led alliance and the SP's coalition changed compared to the 2017 assembly results.
With 55 seats on offer, the second phase was always considered tough for the BJP. One of the reasons could be a higher proportion of Muslims in many of the constituencies that voted on February 14. As per the calculations based on Census data, there are nine seats where Muslims constitute more than 50 per cent of the electorate. A few of the Muslim majority seats include Rampur, Sambhal, Amroha, Chamraua, and Nagina.
Similarly, phase seven was considered BJP's weak link. In the 2017 assembly elections, the BJP won 29 of the 54 seats, and its allies won another seven seats. The party's vote share at 31 per cent was much lower than the party's overall vote share in the state.
The BJP and its allies did suffer in the two phases. But the dip was minor — from a total of 74 seats in 2017 to 58 in 2022. This happened despite the SP-led alliance polling nearly two percentage points more votes in phase two than the BJP and its allies.
