Uttar Pradesh has spoken. The bellwether state that sends 80 parliamentarians to the Lok Sabha has proved to be a game-changer with the INDIA alliance managing to wrest 41 seats. It has been a neck-and-neck fight with the Samajwadi Party winning 34 seats and the Congress seven, while the BJP is ahead on 36 seats, its partners the RLD having won two seats.

In fact after an early scare, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was leading by over one lakh votes from Varanasi, a far cry from the resounding six lakh victory he coasted to in the 2019 elections. The state is witnessing some giant defeats including that of Smriti Irani from Amethi, Sanjeev Baliyan from Muzaffarnagar and Maneka Gandhi from Sultanpur.

The BJP leadership is putting up a brave front but these losses are going to significantly alter the politics of UP in the days to come. It is obvious that the “double engine sarkar” has run out of steam. The farmers, the Dalits and the marginalised sections of the state are no longer willing to buy the Ram Rajya dream being propagated by the Modi-Yogi duo. Akhilesh Yadav chose wisely by fielding candidates from other castes in order to widen his vote bank.

Yogi Adityanath has been an insufferable chief minister who claimed that it was due to his “hard hitting” policies that he was able to provide an effective administration. Travelling across UP, (while covering these elections) people living in cities spoke in one voice that “goonda gardi” had been reduced under the Yogi raj.

But facts on the ground tell another story. After coming to power in 2017, Yogi was responsible for 1,100 encounter killings that........

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