Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election Result 2022, UP Election 2022 Vote Counting: The fate of the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh hangs in balance as counting of votes for the Assembly elections — held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7 — will be taken up tomorrow. Despite several players being in the fray, these elections are seen as a prestige battle between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party. 

The counting of votes will begin at 8 am and first trends are expected to trickle down in the first few minutes themselves. The ballot paper votes will be counted first, followed by the EVM votes. 

The results will decide the fate of 4,441 candidates with 623 in fray in the first phase, 586 in the second phase, 627 in third, 624 in fourth, 692 in fifth, 676 in sixth and 613 in the seventh and last phase of polling.

The exit polls published after the seventh and last phase voting on March 7 have predicted a clear victory for the BJP along with some minor gains for the Samajwadi Party, which will come at the cost of seats for the Congress and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, which are already struggling to keep their vote base intact in the state. 

If exit polls hold true on tomorrow, Yogi Adityanath will be the first chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in the last 37 years to retain the top post for a second straight term after completing a full five-year term in office. 

The high-octane campaign — which went on for two months — saw the BJP and its rival parties attacking each other on a range of issues from COVID-19 handling, law and order, economic and security situation to farmers’ stir.  

Seeking to override anti-incumbency, the ruling party raised issues like forced migration and law and order problems during the previous Samajwadi Party government. It also sought votes on development plank, boasting about the infrastructural projects carried out in five years and its action against criminals, which the BJP claimed were being harboured by the erstwhile governments. 

Besides highlighting the achievements of the ‘double engine’ governments, BJP also reminded the free ration distribution among the poor with Prime Minister Narendra Modi spicing up the campaign by mixing a salt allegory in his speech, to deftly play up salt’s co-relation with loyalty.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav targeted the BJP government on inflation, unemployment, stray cattle menace and farmers’ agitation against the three agri laws, his speeches peppered with potshots at Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The mowing down of four farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri has also been highlighted by all the opposition parties as Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra is an accused in the case.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra wooed voters with the ‘ladki hoon,lad sakti hoon’ campaign, on issues related to women and their security and questioned the caste and religion-based politics rampant during the past three decades. 

BJP’s allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party and Akhilesh Yadav’s new friends Apna Dal (K), Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) of Om Prakash Rajbhar and others tried to rally their supporters.