Election
election to the 18th assembly of the Uttar Pradesh
Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh from 10 February to 7 March 2022 in seven phases to elect all 403 members for the 18th Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The votes were counted and the results were declared on 10 March 2022.
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Text from the Wikipedia article “2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Legislative Assembly elections were held in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh from 10 February to 7 March 2022 in seven phases to elect all 403 members for the 18th Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The votes were counted and the results were declared on 10 March 2022.
The tenure of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly was scheduled to end on 14 May 2022. The previous assembly elections were held February–March 2017. After the election, Bharatiya Janata Party formed the state government, with Yogi Adityanath becoming Chief Minister.
In the 2021 Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Elections, SP won 760 wards, followed by BJP with 720 wards. Bahujan Samaj Party won 381 and Indian National Congress won 76 wards. Independents and smaller parties won in 1,114 wards. AAP won 64 and AIMIM won 22 wards in the panchayat elections.
In January 2022, ten BJP state legislators including three ministers, left the party and joined Samajwadi Party. On 19 January, Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Bisht Yadav joined BJP. She was followed by Mulayam Singh's brother-in-law Pramod Gupta who joined BJP on 20 January. On 25 January, former Union Minister and Congress leader Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh joined BJP.
The election schedule was announced by the Election Commission of India on 8 January 2022.
During the month of September, the NDA confirmed an alliance between BJP, AD(S) and the NISHAD Party. During the month of August, the NDA held talks with parties like JD(U), HAM(S) and others, however the seat sharing talks fell apart later. In October, there were major restructuring efforts by the alliance with new faces and revamp of parties in an effort to battle anti-incumbency. In the first 2 weeks of December, the alliance launched it campaign for the election. On 13 Jan the national democratic alliance sealed their seat sharing pact with NISHAD Party getting 16 and Apna Dal getting 17 and BJP competing on remaining 370 seats. 6 NISHAD Party candidates would fight on BJP symbol.
RLD was the first to join the alliance. The NCP and RJD too joined the alliance later. Various other smaller parties too joined while SBSP broke away from its alliance to join SP alliance. During the first seat sharing talks, SP agreed to give RLD 36 seats. Initially, RLD demanded 60 seats while SP were willing to give up to 30, later both the parties finalised at 33 with RLD mostly competing in West UP. RLD gave 9 symbol of SP candidates. Aam Aadmi Party and Samajwadi Party began talks for alliance, however they couldn't agree on seat sharing. Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohiya) joined the alliance later. On 13 January 2022, the alliance announced its initial candidates for the first few phases of the election. SP and SBSP would have a friendly fight on 1 seat while SP and AD(K) would have a friendly fight on 2 seats.
Unlike in previous years, the Bahujan Samaj Party announced that it would compete in the election all by itself. BSP went into an alliance with ten small political parties, namely the India Janshakti Party, Pacchasi Parivartan Samaj Party, Vishwa Shanti Party, Sanyukt Janadesh Party, Adarsh Sangram Party, Akhand Vikas Bharat Party, Sarvajan Awaz Party, Jagruk Janata Party and Sarvajan Sewa Party for their extended support to BSP.
On 19 October 2021, Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi announced 40% of tickets to women in upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Jan Adhikar Party, Bharat Mukti Morcha, Janata Kranti Party and Bharatiya Vanchit Samaj Party have formed a front to contest all 403 seats.
During the month leading up to the elections major political parties which aren't part of any alliance announced their intentions to compete in the election.
Later parties like VSIP, LJP (Ram Vilas), Rashtriya Rashtrawadi Party, ABHM and ASPKR also confirmed their participation in the election
On 8 February, BJP released its manifesto titled "Lok Sankalp Patra", ahead of the 1st phase of the elections. Some of the promises in it being:
BSP announced that it will not release election manifesto.
INC released its manifesto in three tranches. The first tranche "Shakti Vidhan" was released on 19 December 2021 which centered on women welfare. The second tranche "Bharti Vidhan" was released on 21 January 2022 which centered on youth welfare. The final tranche "Unnati Vidhan" was released on 9 February 2022 which centered on overall development and general issues.
Some key promises made in the manifesto are:
Samajwadi Party released its manifesto on 8 February 2022.
The National President of Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav released his party's 88-page manifesto for the elections. Under the motto "Satya Vachan, Atoot Vaada" (transl. Truth and Unbroken promises), the manifesto is laden with promises to farmers, women and the youth. Some key points from the party's manifesto are:
Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of farmers, campaigned against the ruling BJP by organising public meetings and rallies asking farmers to not vote for BJP. SKM had organised the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest against the controversial three farm acts which were passed by the BJP-led Union Government in the BJP controlled Parliament of India in September 2020. These laws were eventually withdrawn by the Union government.
On 31 January 2022, the farmer leaders observed "Vishwasghat Diwas" (treachery day) across India after the Union government failed to fulfil promises that were made to the farmers during the withdrawal of agitation against three farm laws. SKM leaders have warned that the farm laws may be re-introduced if BJP wins the elections.
According to the SKM leaders the promises that BJP made to the farmers in the 2022 manifesto were also made in the 2017 election manifesto, but they were not implemented. Neither the income of the farmer was doubled nor they got Minimum support Price (MSP) for their produce.
SKM leaders launched "Mission UP and Uttarakhand" and appealed to the voters to not vote for BJP calling them anti-farmer. The appeal did not make any recommendation to vote for any specific political party. SKM's appeal was supported by 57 farmer organisations. Since the campaign rallies were banned due to COVID-19 pandemic in India, leaflets with the appeal were handed to the villagers.
BJP's Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in December 2021, had said that BJP brought the 3 agriculture amendment laws (repealed in 2021). "But the government is not disappointed. We moved a step back and we will move forward again because farmers are India's backbone."
The INC and AAP are against the farm laws and had supported the farmers' unions during their year-long protest against the farm laws.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has stated that after forming the government in Uttar Pradesh, SP will not allow the implementation of any anti-farmer laws in Uttar Pradesh. He warned the farmers against BJP, and said that BJP had withdrawn the controversial farm laws to get votes from the farmers. SP's alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal is also against the implementation of farm laws.
Citing a survey from all constituencies of UP, DNA news reported that unemployment was the biggest issue for 73% of the voters. Inflation and price rise was second with 65% voter support. Development was 54% and stray animal was an issue for 39% voters.
Slaughter of cow is illegal in most places in the country. The anti slaughter laws were not strictly enforced until 2014. Cows are considered holy in Hinduism, yet the farmers regularly took their old cows to slaughter houses until the years before 2014 when BJP's Narendra Modi government won the general election.
The deadly stray cow attacks on humans and crops in both the urban and rural areas is an issue for the residents. In 2017, after coming to power, the Yogi Adityanath government had promised to build cattle shelters to better manage the stray cattle. Since BJP came to power in 2017, cow slaughter has been made illegal in 18 states in India including UP. Since then the trading of male cattle has reduced due to the fear of arrest, persecution, lynching by cow vigilantes. The farmers, unable to sell them, abandon them to wander on the roads and feed on standing crops.
The Adityanath ministry in the state of Uttar Pradesh introduced a special alcohol tax to earn money and maintain thousands of cow sheds operated by the government. The BBC reported that the tax did not solve the problem of stray cow and the cow sheds were found to be over crowded.
BJP state government claims to have provided money to the village pradhans to set up cow shelters to keep the stray cattle. Deccan Herald reported that it could not find cattle shelters in the villages of Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Hardoi and Unnao districts. Places that had cow shelters, were already full with no capacity to keep more cattle.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.