New Delhi:
Did the ruling Samajwadi Party score a clean sweep in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections that catapulted the party to its place of pride?
Though SP romped home with 224 of the 403 Assembly seats, its show was not even across the length and breadth of the vast state.
Though SP almost swept the Yadav heartland in central UP, bagging 76 of 98 seats in that region, it finished runners-up behind BSP in Bundelkhand, considered a stronghold of Mayawati.
The battle was almost evenly poised in western UP, with the two regional parties sharing honours with 29 (SP) and 28 (BSP) seats respectively.
In eastern UP, the SP did fairly well. Backed by the sizeable population of Yadavs and Kurmis in the region, SP won 85 seats.
Mayawati's social engineering paid dividends in 2007 when her BSP got 79 out of 150 seats from Poorvanchal that year. But, it was not action replay in 2017 for her party. From 79, BSP's tally plummeted to 25 seats last time.
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