If shocking results on counting day could be ranked, Uttar Pradesh would be the topper this time. With the counting of votes for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls concluding after more than 15 hours on Tuesday, the BJP's big bastion in the past two general elections saw an epic battle between the NDA and INDIA bloc comprising Samajwadi Party and Congress.
According to the Election Commission's final figures, the BJP won 33 seats, while its allies got three (the Rashtriya Lok Dal two and Apna Dal (Soneylal) one).
On the other hand, the INDIA bloc made a surprising comeback, winning 43 Lok Sabha seats. While Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party secured 37 seats, Congress got six constituencies. The SP had contested 62 seats and the Congress fought 17.
Chandrashekhar of the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) won from the Nagina constituency and Mayawati's BSP, which went solo this time, failed to open its account.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led NDA won 62 of the state's 80 seats, with the BSP and Samajwadi Party, then allies, winning 10 and five seats, respectively.
Exit polls had earlier given the NDA an edge in Uttar Pradesh, but the INDIA bloc leaders had dismissed the projections.
UP Election Results 2024 Live: Key Lok Sabha Seats
Among the key Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi won in Varanasi, while former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi was victorious in the Rae Bareli constituency.
Akhilesh Yadav won from the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat, while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh secured a victory in Lucknow.
Hema Malini, BJP's actor-turned-politician, won the Mathura constituency.
In Amethi, Congress leader KL Sharma defeated Union minister and incumbent MP Smriti Irani.
