BSP denied Akhilesh 18 low-margin seats

Could the Samajwadi Party have done better in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections if the ring was not so crowded?

IMAGE: Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav with Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati in happier times. Photograph: Shailendra Bhojak/PTI Photo.

Social media has been agog with reports of how the presence of various political parties from the usual suspects like the All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen to various rebels and independent in the fray ate into Samajwadi Party votes, robbing it of victory.

For the record, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 255 seats against the SP's 111. SP allies Rashtriya Lok Dal won eight and the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party won six.

So who cost the SP more seats in UP?

Hemantkumar Shivsaran/Rediff.com does a deep dive of 19 seats where the BJP's victory margin was less than 2,000 votes, to find out.

Constituency Name	Winning Candidate	Party	Votes	Candidate - 1st Runner Up	Party	Votes	Margin	Candidate - 2nd Runner Up	Party	Votes
Aurai	Dinanath Bhashkar	BJP	93691	Anjani	SP	92044	1647	Kamala Shankar	BSP	28413
Shrawasti	Ram Feran	BJP	98640	Mohhamad Aslam Rainee	SP	97183	1457	Neetu Mishra	BSP	41026
Bijnor	Suchi	BJP	97165	Neeraj Chaudhary	RLD	95720	1445	Ruchi Vira	BSP	52035
Badlapur	Ramesh Chandra Mishra	BJP	82391	Omprakash Baba Dubey	SP	81065	1326	Manoj	BSP	34792
Sitapur	Rakesh Rathour	BJP	99349	Radhey Shyam Jaiswal	SP	98096	1253	Khurshid Ansari	BSP	16988
Mariyahu	Dr R K Patel	Apna Dal (Soneylal)	76007	Sushma Patel	SP	74801	1206	Anand Dubey	BSP	32783
Chhibramau	Archana Pandey	BJP	124773	Arvind Singh Yadav	SP	123662	1111	Waheeda Bano urf Juhi Sultan	BSP	22000
Manikpur	Avinash Chandra Dwivedi	Apna Dal (Soneylal)	73132	Veer Singh Patel	SP	72084	1048	Balveer Pal	BSP	45367
Sultanpur	Vinod Singh	BJP	92715	Anoop Sanda	SP	91706	1009	Dr Devi Sahay Mishra	BSP	22521
Moradabad Nagar	Ritesh Kumar Gupta	BJP	148384	Mohd Yusuf Ansari	SP	147602	782	Irshad Hussian	BSP	14013
Shahganj	Ramesh	NISHAD	87233	Shailendra Yadav Lalai	SP	86514	719	Indar Dev	BSP	48957
Katra	Veer Vikram Singh	BJP	77800	Rajesh Yadav	SP	77443	357	Munna Singh	INC	17504
Baraut	Krishan Pal Malik	BJP	90931	Jaiveer	RLD	90616	315	Ankit Shamar	BSP	11244
Nakur	Mukesh Choudhary	BJP	104114	Dr Dharam Singh Saini	SP	103799	315	Sahil Khan	BSP	55112
Bilaspur	Baldev Singh Aulakh	BJP	101998	Amarjeet Singh	SP	101691	307	Ramautar Kashyap	BSP	18870
Nehtaur	Omkumar	BJP	77935	Munshiram	RLD	77677	258	Priya Singh	BSP	38020
Kursi	Sakendra Pratap	BJP	118720	Rakesh Kumar Verma	SP	118503	217	Kumari Meeta Gautam	BSP	35561
Dhampur	Ashok Kumar Rana	BJP	81791	Naim Ul Hasan	SP	81588	203	Thakur Moolchand Chauhan	BSP	38993

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