# 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.

## Preparation by the Election Commission

The election commission had appointed its total of 240 observers in the state in view of the preparations.
The filing of nomination along with voting was carried by the Election Commission in three days as:
| Poll event | Phase | Phase | Phase |
| Poll event | 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 | 13 May 2004 | 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.

## Campaigning and Seat Alliances

The BJP in its party manifesto included building Lord Ram temple in Ayodhya as a part of ‘Vision Document’. 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.
The table shows seat allotments alliance and party wise:
| Alliance/Party | Alliance/Party | Symbol | Seats contested | Seats contested |
| National Democratic Alliance | Bharatiya Janata Party | | 77 | 80 |
| National Democratic Alliance | JD(U) | | 3 | 80 |
| SP+ | Samajwadi Party | | 70 | 80 |
| SP+ | Rashtriya Lok Dal | Hand pump | 10 | 80 |
| INC+ | Indian National Congress | | 73 | 76 |
| INC+ | Lok Janshakti Party | | 3 | 76 |
| Third Front | Communist Party of India (Marxist) | | 2 | 8 |
| Third Front | Communist Party of India | | 6 | 8 |
The BSP had contested all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

## Voting

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

## Results Party/Alliance Wise

The biggest gainer in the election was the Samajwadi Party which alone won 35 seats and its alliance partner RLD won 3 seats in western Uttar Pradesh. The SP alliance won almost half the seats from the state. SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav won from Mainpuri by a huge difference.
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. 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.
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.
The BSP registered its victory in 19 seats.
Vote share Party wise
Seats Party wise

## Constituency Wise Results

The detailed results per seat wise based on winning candidates is mentioned in table below:
| 35 | 19 | 10 | 9 | 3 | 4 |
| SP | BSP | BJP | INC | RLD | IND and Others |
| Constituency | Constituency | Winner | Winner | Winner | Runner Up | Runner Up | Runner Up | Margin | Margin |
| S No. | Name | Candidate | Party | Party | Candidate | Party | 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 | | Samajwadi Party | Begum Noor Bano | | Indian National Congress | 10.54 | 85,474 |
| 5 | Sambhal | Ram Gopal Yadav | | Samajwadi Party | Tarannum Aqeel | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 26.08 | 198,061 |
| 6 | Badaun | Saleem Iqbal Shervani | | Samajwadi Party | 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 | | Bharatiya Janata Party | Satyapal Gangwar | | Samajwadi Party | 15.17 | 102,720 |
| 10 | Shahjahanpur | Jitin Prasada | | Indian National Congress | Rammurti Singh Verma | | Samajwadi Party | 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 | | Bahujan Samaj Party | Mukhtar Anees | | Samajwadi Party | 0.88 | 5,234 |
| 14 | Misrikh | Ashok Kumar Rawat | | Bahujan Samaj Party | Sushila Saroj | | Samajwadi Party | 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 | | Samajwadi Party | 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 | | Bahujan Samaj Party | Shankhlal Majhi | | Samajwadi Party | 7.86 | 58,269 |
| 24 | Faizabad | Mitrasen Yadav | | Bahujan Samaj Party | Lallu Singh | | Bharatiya Janata Party | 4.88 | 33,486 |
| 25 | Barabanki | Kamla Prasad | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 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 | | Samajwadi Party | Bhagat Ram Mishra | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 4.79 | 26,334 |
| 28 | Balrampur | Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh | | Bharatiya Janata Party | Rizwan Zaheer | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 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 | | Bharatiya Janata Party | 4.40 | 25,374 |
| 31 | Domariyaganj | Mohammed Muqueem | | Bahujan Samaj Party | Jagdambika Pal | | Indian National Congress | 8.23 | 52,902 |
| 32 | Khalilabad | Bhalchandra Yadava | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 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 | | Bharatiya Janata Party | Akhilesh Singh | | Samajwadi Party | 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 | | Samajwadi Party | 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 | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 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 | | Samajwadi Party | R. A. Prasad | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 4.19 | 29,810 |
| 46 | Ghazipur | Afzal Ansari | | Samajwadi Party | 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 | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 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 | | Samajwadi Party | Murli Manohar Joshi | | Bharatiya Janata Party | 4.32 | 28,383 |
| 53 | Chail | Shailendra Kumar | | Samajwadi Party | 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 | | Samajwadi Party | Ashok Kumar Singh Chandel | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 6.15 | 37,154 |
| 57 | Jhansi | Chandrapal Singh Yadav | | Samajwadi Party | Babu Singh Kushwaha | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 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 | | Bharatiya Janata Party | 27.01 | 190,157 |
| 63 | Kannauj | Akhilesh Yadav | | Samajwadi Party | Thakur Rajesh Singh | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 40.52 | 307,373 |
| 64 | Farrukhabad | Chandra Bhushan Singh | | Samajwadi Party | Louise Khurshid | | Indian National Congress | 0.41 | 2,745 |
| 65 | Mainpuri | Mulayam Singh Yadav | | Samajwadi Party | Ashok Shakya | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 46.93 | 337,870 |
| 66 | Jalesar | S. P. Singh Baghel | | Samajwadi Party | Pratyendra Pal Singh | | Bharatiya Janata Party | 16.31 | 106,068 |
| 67 | Etah | Devendra Singh Yadav | | Samajwadi Party | Ashok Ratan Shakya | | Bharatiya Janata Party | 8.74 | 51,335 |
| 68 | Firozabad | Ram Ji Lal Suman | | Samajwadi Party | Kishori Lal Mahaur | | Bharatiya Janata Party | 10.31 | 54,788 |
| 69 | Agra | Raj Babbar | | Samajwadi Party | Murari Lal Mittal | | Bharatiya Janata Party | 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 | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 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 | | Bharatiya Janata Party | 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 | | Bahujan Samaj Party | 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. 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. 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. 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. Although the party had lost election deposit in 11 contesting seats.
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.