2004 Indian general election in Uttar Pradesh

The 2004 Indian general election in Uttar Pradesh were held between 26 April and 10 May 2004 for the 14th Lok Sabha. The election results were declared on 13 May in which the national parties the BJP and the Congress performed quite badly while the state parties, SP and BSP did very well and fetched majority of the seats. Early polls called by the BJP proved disastrous for the party, although Congress managed to win and form the government at the national level.

2004 Indian general election in Uttar Pradesh

← 1999 26 April 2004 5, 10 May 2004 2009 →
80 seats
Turnout	48.16%[1]
First party Second party Third party   Leader Mulayam Singh Yadav Mayawati Atal Bihari Vajpayee Party SP BSP BJP Alliance NDA Leader's seat Mainpuri Akbarpur Lucknow Last election 26 14 29 Seats won 35 19 10 Seat change 9 5 19 Percentage 26.74% 24.67% 22.17% Swing 2.68% 2.59% 5.47%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Sonia Gandhi Ajit Singh Party INC RLD Alliance UPA Leader's seat Raebareli Baghpat Last election 10 2 Seats won 9 3 Seat change 1 1 Percentage 12.04% 4.49% Swing 2.68% 2.00%

Preparation by the Election Commission

The election commission had appointed its total of 240 observers in the state in view of the preparations.^[2]

The filing of nomination along with voting was carried by the Election Commission in three days as:^[3]

Poll event	Phase
	I	II	III
Notification date	31 March 2004	8 April 2004	16 April 2004
Last date for filing the nomination	7 April 2004	15 April 2004	23 April 2004
Date of Scrutiny	8 April 2004	16 April 2004	24 April 2004
Last date for withdrawal of nomination	10 April 2004	19 April 2004	26 April 2004
Date of poll	26 April 2004	5 May 2004	10 May 2004
Date of counting	13 May 2004

Voting Phases
I (32 seats)	II (30 seats)	III (18 seats)
Rae Bareli Pratapgarh Amethi Sultanpur Akbarpur Faizabad Bara Banki Kaiserganj Bahraich Balrampur Gonda Basti Domariaganj Khalilabad Bansgaon Gorakhpur Maharajganj Padrauna Deoria Salempur Ballia Ghosi Azamgarh Lalganj Machhlishahr Jaunpur Saidpur Ghazipur Chandauli Varanasi Robertsganj Mirzapur	Kheri Shahabad Sitapur Misrikh Hardoi Lucknow Mohanlalganj Unnao Phulpur Allahabad Chail Fatehpur Banda Hamirpur Jhansi Jalaun Ghatampur Bilhaur Kanpur Etawah Kannauj Farrukhabad Mainpuri Jalesar Etah Firozabad Agra Mathura Hathras Aligarh	Bijnor Amroha Moradabad Rampur Sambhal Budaun Aonla Bareilly Pilibhit Shahjahanpur Khurja Bulandshahr Hapur Meerut Baghpat Muzaffarnagar Kairana Saharanpur

Further the affidavits were filed by the contesting candidates from each seat respectively which were submitted to the Election Commission as mandated.^[4]

Campaigning and Seat Alliances

The BJP in its party manifesto included building Lord Ram temple in Ayodhya as a part of ‘Vision Document’.^[5] The party had hoped that section of the public would believe there is no alternate to PM Vajpayee with the slogan: Kaho dil se, Atal phir se and would ultimately help in certain seats.^[6]

The table shows seat allotments alliance and party wise:^[7]

Alliance/Party				Flag	Symbol	Seats contested
	National Democratic Alliance		Bharatiya Janata Party			77	80
			JD(U)			3
	SP+[8]		Samajwadi Party			70	80
			Rashtriya Lok Dal		Hand pump	10
	INC+		Indian National Congress			73	76
			Lok Janshakti Party			3
	Third Front		Communist Party of India (Marxist)			2	8
			Communist Party of India			6

The BSP had contested all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state.^[9]

Voting

The total voting percentage was recorded at 48.16 for all the three phases with 11,06,24,490 electorate casting their votes.^[10] 63 seats were reserved for the general caste while remaining 17 for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.^[11][12]

Results Party/Alliance Wise

The biggest gainer in the election was the Samajwadi Party which alone won 35 seats^[13] and its alliance partner RLD won 3 seats in western Uttar Pradesh. The SP alliance won almost half the seats from the state.^[14] SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav won from Mainpuri by a huge difference.^[15]

Perhaps the biggest loser was the BJP which was reduced to just 10 seats from previous 25 seats in 1999 general election from the state even though Vajpayee won comfortably from Lucknow.^[8] Important state party leaders Maneka Gandhi and Yogi Adityanath were elected from Pilibhit and Gorakhpur respectively. The party’s India Shining campaign backfired badly for the party and they lost a substantial number of seats.^[5]

Another national party Congress did not gained in the state and was limited to just 9 seats although their national party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi won from Raebareli and Amethi.^[15][13]

The BSP registered its victory in 19 seats.

Vote share Party wise^[16]

  SP (26.74%)

  BSP (24.67%)

  BJP (22.17%)

  INC (12.04%)

  RLD (4.49%)

  IND (3.81%)

  Others (6.08%)

Seats Party wise

  SP (43.75%)

  BSP (23.75%)

  BJP (12.5%)

  INC (11.25%)

  RLD (3.75%)

  IND (1.25%)

  Others (3.75%)

Constituency Wise Results

The detailed results per seat wise based on winning candidates is mentioned in table below:^[17]

35	19	10	9	3	4
SP	BSP	BJP	INC	RLD	IND and Others

Constituency		Winner			Runner Up			Margin
S No.	Name	Candidate	Party		Candidate	Party		%	Votes
1	Bijnor	Munshiram Singh		Rashtriya Lok Dal	Ghanshyam Chandr Kharwar		Bahujan Samaj Party	11.36	80,175
2	Amroha	Harish Nagpal		Independent	Mahmood Madani		Rashtriya Lok Dal	2.02	17,884
3	Moradabad	Shafiqur Rahman Barq		Samajwadi Party	Chandra Vijay Singh		Bharatiya Janata Party	5.47	35,840
4	Rampur	Jaya Prada			Begum Noor Bano		Indian National Congress	10.54	85,474
5	Sambhal	Ram Gopal Yadav			Tarannum Aqeel		Bahujan Samaj Party	26.08	198,061
6	Badaun	Saleem Iqbal Shervani			Brijpal Singh Shakya		Bharatiya Janata Party	8.70	51,322
7	Aonla	Sarvraj Singh		Janata Dal (United)	Rajveer SIngh		Samajwadi Party	1.28	6,871
8	Bareilly	Santosh Gangwar		Bharatiya Janata Party	Akbar Ahmad		Bahujan Samaj Party	7.25	59,644
9	Pilibhit	Maneka Gandhi			Satyapal Gangwar		Samajwadi Party	15.17	102,720
10	Shahjahanpur	Jitin Prasada		Indian National Congress	Rammurti Singh Verma			12.91	81,832
11	Kheri	Ravi Prakash Verma		Samajwadi Party	Daud Ahmad		Bahujan Samaj Party	1.66	11,760
12	Shahabad	Iliyas Azmi		Bahujan Samaj Party	Satya Dev Singh		Bharatiya Janata Party	8.00	46,369
13	Sitapur	Rajesh Verma			Mukhtar Anees		Samajwadi Party	0.88	5,234
14	Misrikh	Ashok Kumar Rawat			Sushila Saroj			3.52	19,403
15	Hardoi	Usha Verma		Samajwadi Party	Shiv Prasad Verma		Bahujan Samaj Party	7.51	39,203
16	Lucknow	Atal Bihari Vajpayee		Bharatiya Janata Party	Madhu Gupta		Samajwadi Party	37.74	218,375
17	Mohanlalganj	Jai Prakash		Samajwadi Party	Radhe Lal		Bahujan Samaj Party	0.45	2,568
18	Unnao	Brajesh Pathak		Bahujan Samaj Party	Deepak Kumar		Samajwadi Party	3.24	17,761
19	Raebareli	Sonia Gandhi		Indian National Congress	Ashok Singh			38.81	249,765
20	Pratapgarh	Akshay Pratap Singh		Samajwadi Party	Ratna Singh		Indian National Congress	12.10	69,272
21	Amethi	Rahul Gandhi		Indian National Congress	Chandraprakash Mishra Matiyari		Bahujan Samaj Party	49.33	290,853
22	Sultanpur	Mohammad Tahir Khan		Bahujan Samaj Party	Shailendra Pratap Singh		Samajwadi Party	14.12	101,810
23	Akbarpur	Mayawati			Shankhlal Majhi			7.86	58,269
24	Faizabad	Mitrasen Yadav			Lallu Singh		Bharatiya Janata Party	4.88	33,486
25	Barabanki	Kamla Prasad			Ram Sagar Rawat		Samajwadi Party	3.87	20,922
26	Kaiserganj	Beni Prasad Verma		Samajwadi Party	Arif Mohammad Khan		Bharatiya Janata Party	2.22	12,660
27	Bahraich	Rubab Sayda			Bhagat Ram Mishra		Bahujan Samaj Party	4.79	26,334
28	Balrampur	Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh		Bharatiya Janata Party	Rizwan Zaheer			7.54	52,613
29	Gonda	Kirti Vardhan Singh		Samajwadi Party	Ghan Shyam Shukla		Bharatiya Janata Party	6.10	36,998
30	Basti	Lal Mani Prasad		Bahujan Samaj Party	Sriram Chauhan			4.40	25,374
31	Domariyaganj	Mohammed Muqueem			Jagdambika Pal		Indian National Congress	8.23	52,902
32	Khalilabad	Bhalchandra Yadava			Bhishma Shankar Tiwari		Samajwadi Party	3.86	27,023
33	Bansgaon	Mahaveer Prasad		Indian National Congress	Sadal Prasad		Bahujan Samaj Party	2.60	16,441
34	Gorakhpur	Yogi Adityanath		Bharatiya Janata Party	Jamuna Nishad		Samajwadi Party	20.61	142,039
35	Maharajganj	Pankaj Choudhary			Akhilesh Singh			8.68	64,799
36	Padrauna	Baleshwar Yadav		National Loktantrik Party	Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh		Indian National Congress	1.07	8,422
37	Deoria	Mohan Singh		Samajwadi Party	Prakash Mani Tripathi		Bharatiya Janata Party	7.16	52,226
38	Salempur	Hari Kewal Prasad			Bhola Pandey		Indian National Congress	2.43	16,253
39	Ballia	Chandra Shekhar		Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)	Kapildeo Yadav		Bahujan Samaj Party	13.08	81,054
40	Ghosi	Chandradeo Prasad Rajbhar		Samajwadi Party	Bal Krishna			2.91	21,012
41	Azamgarh	Ramakant Yadav		Bahujan Samaj Party	Durga Prasad Yadav		Samajwadi Party	0.98	6,968
42	Lalganj	Daroga Prasad Saroj		Samajwadi Party	Bali Ram		Bahujan Samaj Party	5.60	42,731
43	Machhlishahr	Umakant Yadav		Bahujan Samaj Party	Chandra Nath Singh		Samajwadi Party	8.19	55,382
44	Jaunpur	Parasnath Yadav		Samajwadi Party	Om Prakash Dubey		Bahujan Samaj Party	3.80	27,125
45	Saidpur	Tufani Saroj			R. A. Prasad			4.19	29,810
46	Ghazipur	Afzal Ansari			Manoj Sinha		Bharatiya Janata Party	26.09	226,777
47	Chandauli	Kailash Nath Singh Yadav		Bahujan Samaj Party	Ananda Ratna Maurya		Samajwadi Party	0.24	1,669
48	Varanasi	Rajesh Kumar Mishra		Indian National Congress	Shankar Prasad Jaiswal		Bharatiya Janata Party	9.07	57,436
49	Robertsganj	Lalchandra		Bahujan Samaj Party	Pakaudi Lal Kol		Samajwadi Party	1.43	10,362
50	Mirzapur	Narendra Kumar Kushwaha			Virendra Singh		Bharatiya Janata Party	5.00	36,412
51	Phulpur	Atique Ahmed		Samajwadi Party	Keshari Devi Patel		Bahujan Samaj Party	8.52	64,347
52	Allahabad	Rewati Raman Singh			Murli Manohar Joshi		Bharatiya Janata Party	4.32	28,383
53	Chail	Shailendra Kumar			Vachaspati		Bahujan Samaj Party	0.11	630
54	Fatehpur	Mahendra Prasad Nishad		Bahujan Samaj Party	Achal Singh		Samajwadi Party	10.37	52,568
55	Banda	Shyama Charan Gupta		Samajwadi Party	Ram Sajeevan		Bahujan Samaj Party	10.70	56,304
56	Hamirpur	Rajnarayan Budholiya			Ashok Kumar Singh Chandel			6.15	37,154
57	Jhansi	Chandrapal Singh Yadav			Babu Singh Kushwaha			3.21	26,299
58	Jalaun	Bhanu Pratap Singh Verma		Bharatiya Janata Party	Ghanshyam Kori		Samajwadi Party	4.62	26,791
59	Ghatampur	Radhey Shyam Kori		Samajwadi Party	Pyare Lal Sankhwar		Bahujan Samaj Party	2.04	10,312
60	Bilhaur	Raja Ram Pal		Bahujan Samaj Party	Lal Singh Tomar		Samajwadi Party	3.80	24,402
61	Kanpur	Sriprakash Jaiswal		Indian National Congress	Satyadev Pachauri		Bharatiya Janata Party	0.91	5,638
62	Etawah	Raghuraj Singh Shakya		Samajwadi Party	Sarita Bhadauria			27.01	190,157
63	Kannauj	Akhilesh Yadav			Thakur Rajesh Singh		Bahujan Samaj Party	40.52	307,373
64	Farrukhabad	Chandra Bhushan Singh			Louise Khurshid		Indian National Congress	0.41	2,745
65	Mainpuri	Mulayam Singh Yadav			Ashok Shakya		Bahujan Samaj Party	46.93	337,870
66	Jalesar	S. P. Singh Baghel			Pratyendra Pal Singh		Bharatiya Janata Party	16.31	106,068
67	Etah	Devendra Singh Yadav			Ashok Ratan Shakya			8.74	51,335
68	Firozabad	Ram Ji Lal Suman			Kishori Lal Mahaur			10.31	54,788
69	Agra	Raj Babbar			Murari Lal Mittal			8.92	57,342
70	Mathura	Manvendra Singh		Indian National Congress	Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan Singh		Bahujan Samaj Party	6.33	38,132
71	Hathras	Kishan Lal Diler		Bharatiya Janata Party	Ram Vir Singh			4.64	22,837
72	Aligarh	Bijendra Singh		Indian National Congress	Sheela Gautam		Bharatiya Janata Party	0.44	2,791
73	Khurja	Ashok Kumar Pradhan		Bharatiya Janata Party	Ravi Gautam		Bahujan Samaj Party	6.85	41,150
74	Bulandshahr	Kalyan Singh			Badrul Islam		Rashtriya Lok Dal	2.43	16,651
75	Hapur	Surendra Prakash Goel		Indian National Congress	Ramesh Chand Tomar		Bharatiya Janata Party	5.30	42,363
76	Meerut	Mohammed Shahid Akhlaq		Bahujan Samaj Party	Malook Nagar		Rashtriya Lok Dal	9.94	69,336
77	Baghpat	Ajit Singh		Rashtriya Lok Dal	Aulad Ali		Bahujan Samaj Party	33.59	220,638
78	Muzaffarnagar	Chaudhary Munawwar Hasan		Samajwadi Party	Amar Pal Singh		Bharatiya Janata Party	8.00	69,005
79	Kairana	Anuradha Choudhary		Rashtriya Lok Dal	Shah Nawaz		Bahujan Samaj Party	41.93	342,414
80	Saharanpur	Rasheed Masood		Samajwadi Party	Mansoor Ali Khan			2.71	26,828

Post Result Analysis

The result showed that both the national parties, BJP and the Congress were rejected by the state voters with the opinion poll proved equally wrong.^[18] The state electorate seems to have upright rejected ‘’India shining’’ slogan coined by the BJP owing to its dismal performance. The party downward slide continued in numbers way lower than what when it had registered the victory in more than 50 seats in the state in subsequent 1991, 1996 and 1998 elections.^[19] The decision for calling snap polls by the Vajpayee govt proved very costly for the party. The tally in the state was the lowest since 1989 election.^[20] Notable state BJP leaders including union ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Swami Chinmayanand, state assembly speaker Keshari Nath Tripathi and Uttar Pradesh party unit chief Vinay Katiyar were all defeated. The Ram temple issue also did not help as its party candidate Laloo Singh was defeated at Faizabad by BSP’s Mitrasen Yadav. The party failed to win even a single seat in Kashi (Varanasi) region which had 13 Lok Sabha seats. Another BJP prominent leader and ex-CM Kalyan Singh was able to win from Bulandshahr by a small margin of around 6500 votes but the party lost Aligarh, Singh’s hometown to the Congress.

In spite of campaigning by Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party was restricted to only 9 seats. The Congress lost Rampur, Meerut, Pratapgarh and Muzaffarnagar, but for the first time in a decade made victories in Poorvanchal (eastern) region by capturing Varanasi and Bansgaon seats.

The regional party, SP did quite well in the state, particularly in the eastern region and winning seats in the Bundelkhand region where it previously went blank in 1999 election. The alliance with the RLD proved fruitful in the western UP where Muslim-Jat-Yadav combined voted for the SP-RLD alliance.

Apart from it BSP also performed well with consolidation of dalit votes resulting in winning 19 seats from 14 before even in absence of party leader Kanshi Ram and Mayawati taking the charge thereof. Party strategy of fielding a large number of Muslims and upper caste candidates proved to be beneficial for the party.^[8] Although the party had lost election deposit in 11 contesting seats.^[9]

It was also determined by ‘Centre for the Study of Developing Societies’ that the majority of the people did not voted keeping in mind the negative statements about their leader or parties to whom they are supporting.^[21]

References

1. "STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 2004 TO THE 14th LOK SABHA". Vol. v:I. Election Commission of India. p. 168.
2. "General Elections to the 14th Lok Sabha and certain State Legislative Assemblies, 2004 – Deployment of Observers". Election Commission of India. 19 March 2004. p. 3.
3. "ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA, PRESS NOTE, SUBJECT: SCHEDULE FOR GENERAL ELECTIONS, 2004". Election Commission of India. 29 February 2004. pp. 11, 13, 20, 25.
4. "Office of Chief Electoral Officer - UTTAR PRADESH, Lok Sabha Elections 2004 - List of Parliamentary Constituencies". Election Commission of India.
5. "Misreading the mandate". 4 June 2004. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023.
6. "In Uttar Pradesh, Vajpayee is BJP's trump card". 4 May 2004. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023.
7. "Uttar Pradesh [2000 Onwards] Lok Sabha / Parliamantary Alliances - 2004". Archived from the original on 11 February 2023.
8. "BJP suffers worst-ever drubbing in UP". Rediff. 14 May 2004. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023.
9. "BSP to contest from 500 seats". The Economic Times. 22 Mar 2009. Archived from the original on 27 March 2009.
10. "STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 2004 TO THE 14th LOK SABHA". Vol. v:I. Election Commission of India. pp. 10, 168.
11. "STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 2004 TO THE 14th LOK SABHA". Vol. v:I. Election Commission of India. pp. 9, 10, 12.
12. "2004 Lok Sabha election results for Uttar Pradesh [2000 Onwards]". Archived from the original on 31 January 2023.
13. "Shock defeat for India's Hindu nationalists". The Guardian. 14 May 2004. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023.
14. "BJP, RLD finalise poll alliance in UP". India Today. 24 Feb 2009. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023.
15. "2004 को वो चुनाव जब नहीं चला भाजपा का 'इंडिया शाइनिंग' नारा, सोनिया के इंकार के बाद मनमोहन बने पीएम". Amar Ujala. 16 May 2019. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023.
16. "STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 2004 TO THE 14th LOK SABHA". Vol. v:I. Election Commission of India. pp. 160–162.
17. "STATISTICAL REPORT ON GENERAL ELECTIONS, 2004 TO THE 14th LOK SABHA". Vol. v:I. Election Commission of India. pp. 300–335.
18. "NDA may recover in phase-III: Opinion polls". Rediff. 4 May 2004. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023.
19. "The issue is not Modi". Rediff. 23 June 2004. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023.
20. "Elections 2004: BJP pays heavy price for arrogance, haste and strategic blunders". India Today. 24 May 2004. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023.
21. "STATEWIDE ANALYSIS OF THE FOURTEENTH GENERAL ELECTIONS IN INDIA" (PDF). CSDS. pp. 32, 33. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2022.

External links

• Election Commission of India
• State Election Commission Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow