Lok Sabha election results 2024: How Uttar Pradesh elected India’s most PMs

After a long election cycle, India is ready to welcome its new government. The 2024 Lok Sabha poll results will be out on Tuesday (4 June) as vote counting reveals the winners and losers.

Uttar Pradesh (UP) will be a keenly watched state as results pour in. The northern state has given the highest number of prime ministers to India. The incumbent premier Narendra Modi was also elected from UP’s Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 and 2019.

Let’s take a closer look.

UP’s importance in LS polls

Uttar Pradesh is India’s most populous state, comprising 17 per cent of the country’s population, according to the 2011 census. It also sends 80 members to the Lok Sabha – the highest of any state.

The Members of Parliament from UP make up 20 per cent of the lower house of Parliament. At 48, Maharashtra has the second-highest number of MPs.

India has had 15 Prime Ministers since Independence in August 1947. Of these, nine PMs were elected to the Lok Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.

Political pundits have long believed that the road to Delhi goes via Uttar Pradesh. “It’s commonly said that ‘the way to Delhi is through UP’ and a party that does well in the state generally goes on to rule India,” Sharat Pradhan, a senior journalist in Lucknow, told BBC.

However, the Congress under PV Narasimha Rao broke this pattern in 1991 when the party won just five of 84 Lok Sabha seats from UP. It still went on to form the government at the Centre.

Congress’ link to UP

The state is significant for the Nehru-Gandhi family. Motilal Nehru, father of India’s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, was born in Agra. He practiced law in the city before moving to Allahabad (now Prayagraj), as per an Indian Express report.

His son Jawaharlal’s birthplace is Allahabad. The daughter of India’s first PM, Indira Gandhi, was also born here.

Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira were born in UP’s Allahabad. AFP File Photo

Nehru was elected thrice from UP’s Phulpur Lok Sabha constituency in 1951, 1957 and 1962. After his death, his sister Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit represented the seat twice in 1964 and 1967.

Lal Bahadur Shastri, who became India’s second prime minister, was elected from the Allahabad Lok Sabha seat.

Rae Bareli, considered a Congress bastion, sent Indira Gandhi to the Lok Sabha. She served as India’s PM from 1966 to 1977. She returned to the top post in 1980, winning from Rae Bareli and Andhra Pradesh’s Medak. Gandhi gave up the UP seat and retained Medak.

Barring Narasimha Rao, who represented Andhra Pradesh’s Nandyal as PM, and Manmohan Singh – a Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan and Assam, all Congress leaders were elected from UP during their tenure as India’s premier, noted Indian Express.

While the Congress has been associated with UP for decades, the state has not always sided with the party.

In 1977, Indira Gandhi’s party, Congress (R), failed to secure a single seat in UP, with her and her son, Rajiv, losing their constituencies of Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively, as per Indian Express.

Rajiv Gandhi, who went on to become India’s PM after his mother’s assassination, had recorded a landslide victory from the Amethi constituency in 1984.

The Congress was a major force in Uttar Pradesh for over three decades before local parties started gaining ground in the 1990s. After the Modi wave, the Grand Old Party was reduced to just one seat in UP – Rae Bareli won by Sonia Gandhi – in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

This time, the Congress contested the general elections in UP in alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP).

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UP is a key state for BJP

Uttar Pradesh will play a key role in making Modi a three-time prime minister if the BJP returns to power.

The saffron party won over 50 seats in UP during the 1991, 1996 and 1998 general elections. The late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the first BJP leader to be sworn in as the PM, had won from Lucknow in the 1996 polls.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee won from Lucknow in the in the 1996 general elections. AFP File Photo

As per The Hindu, the BJP’s electoral gains increased with its performance in UP. However, the party’s tally in the state dropped to a record low of 29 seats in the 1999 elections. By 2004, the saffron party lost steam in UP amid the rise of regional parties like SP and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

The BJP again emerged as a dominant force in the state after Modi became India’s PM for the first time in 2014.

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Realising the importance of the state, Modi, who hails from the western state of Gujarat, chose UP’s Varanasi for his Lok Sabha debut in 2014. He won by a record margin of over three lakh votes against the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal.

Modi was re-elected from the temple town in 2019, defeating SP’s Shalini Yadav by 479,505 votes.

The BJP won 71 seats in UP in 2014 and 62 in the 2019 polls. The saffron party is aiming for more than 70 seats from the state this time.

The other PMs from UP include Janata Party’s Charan Singh, Vishwanath Pratap Singh of the Janata Dal and Chandra Shekhar of the Janata Dal (Samajwadi).

With the BJP’s goal of ‘400 paar’ this time, it remains to be seen how the saffron party fares in UP, which as per BBC, is considered “the biggest prize” in the Indian election.

With inputs from agencies