Who won the elections in UP, Punjab, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand?

The assembly elections 2022 across five states including Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Goa, Uttarakhand, and Punjab, saw the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerging as the winner in the first four, while Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) clinched Punjab. 

AAP is poised to be the first party apart from the Akali Dal and Congress to rule Punjab, but BJP is set to make history too, with its pro-incumbency trend that it’ll undoubtedly carry to campaigns in other key states, as well as the general elections in 2024. 

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With its win in Uttar Pradesh, BJP has successfully broken a cycle of the state voting out the party in power since 1997, and in Uttarakhand, it has made history too, becoming the only party to return to power since the state came into being. 

Even in Goa, where exit polls predicted a hung parliament, BJP has shown a clean pair of heels to the Congress, who were left scrambling in an attempt to form an alliance before counting began. 

Election results have already shone a light on the diminishing presence of the Congress, India’s grand old party. While going into polling, Congress held power in just Punjab, it has been trounced from there as well. With the current trends, Congress only retains power in four states – Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. Of these, the party is a minor alliance partner in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. 

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Since many have considered Congress to be a political alternative to the BJP in the national sphere, it begs the question as to whether there is another option in Indian politics at this point. However, if the 2022 assembly elections are any indication, it shows that people are willing to seek out an alternative, if available when they realize the flaws in the political establishment. 

Hence, BJP might have won big, but in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has witnessed a rise in vote share and the number of seats won.