The BJP’s bulldozer campaign has finally demolished the votebank of the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) that has ended up with a miniscule 0.4% vote share and zero seats in the assembly elections of India’s most populous state.

The AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asadudddin Owaisi, who created a flutter in state politics with his fiery speeches and claims, has failed to move even a fly as he had an opportunity to polarize minorities in his favour during the high-octane BJP’s bulldozer campaign.

In 2017, the AIMIM had failed to open its account in Uttar Pradesh. The Hyderabad based party has fielded candidates on 38 seats last time and received around 2 lakh votes.

This time Owaisi had fielded his candidates on 100 seats and received 22.3 lakh votes and increased its vote share marginally. Even though, he had fielded his candidates only from Muslim dominated seats but he has been refused by the minority voters.

However, the AIMIM was confident of winning the assembly seats of Mubarakpur, Deoband and Utrauli. The Party had fielded former BSP leader Guddu Jamali from Mubarakpur seat of Azamgarh. Despite of several winning claims, Jamali has lost the seat that has a large population of communities of weavers, migrant workers and people from different thoughts of Islam.

The polling for 403 seats of Uttar Pradesh Assembly was held in seven-phase from February 10 to March 7. A total of 15,05,82,750 voters cast their votes on 1,74,351 polling stations during the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh which is currently governed by Yogi Adityanath. Yogi Adityanath (BJP) from Gorakhpur (Urban), Akhilesh Yadav (SP) from Karhal, Keshav Prasad Maurya (BJP) from Sirathu, Swami Prasad Maurya (SP) from Fazilnagar, Azam Khan (SP) from Rampur and Pankaj Singh (BJP) from Noida are some of the key faces of UP elections.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav leading from Karhal seat

The Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is leading from Karhal seat with 48379 votes. The BSP’s Kuladip Narayan is behind him with 48379 votes.

Akhilesh Yadav, a four-time MP who currently represents Azamgarh in the Lok Sabha, is contesting his first assembly election from Karhal assembly seat against the BJP’s SP Singh Baghel. At the age of 38, he became the youngest Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. He had to resign from Kannauj parliamentary seat after his party won the Assembly elections in 2012. Karhal assembly seat is part of the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency, which SP chief patron Mulayam Singh Yadav represents in Parliament.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has won from Gorakhpur Urban seat

Adityanath, a five-time former Lok Sabha MP, is contesting his first assembly election from the Gorakhpur urban seat. Gorakhpur has been BJP bastions for more than 30 years. The party has lost Gorakhpur once in 2002.

SP Singh Baghel (BJP) from Karhal seat Trailing

The BJP’s SP Singh Baghel is trailing from Mainpuri’s Karhal seat, he comes third in terms of getting votes.

SP Singh Baghel, a Union minister in Narendra Modi government, is contesting from Karhal against the former Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

In 2017, he had contested from Tundla assembly seat. In 2009, Baghel unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha polls from Firozabad against Akhilesh on a BSP ticket.

Azam Khan (SP) from Rampur assembly seat Leading

A jailed Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan is contesting from the Muslim-dominated seat of Rampur against Congress’ Kazim Ali Khan and BJP’s Akash Saxena. Khan’s old rival Kazim Ali Khan is the son of the last Nawab of Rampur, whose parents won the Rampur Lok Sabha seat seven times on Congress ticket. The other contender, Saxena, also has a history with Azam, as his father, former BJP minister Shiv Bahadur Saxena, lost the Assembly polls from this seat to Azam Khan way back in 1989. Saxena, a lawyer, is responsible for more than half of the cases filed against the SP leader.

Guddu Jamali (AIMIM) from Mubarakpur seat Leading

Shah Alam alias Guddu Jamali, a sitting MLA from BSP, is contesting against Arvind Jaiswal of BJP and the BSP’s Abdul Salaam from Mubarakpur seat on AIMIM ticket. He is the only winning candi

Nahid Hasan (Samajwadi Party) from Kairana seat Leading

Nahid Hasan is contesting from Kairana seat on Samajwadi Party ticket. He was recently arrested by UP Police and remanded to judicial custody. In the absence of Hasan, his sister had led the Samajwadi campaign in Kairana.   

Pankaj Singh

Pankaj Singh (BJP), son of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, has been fielded from Noida against Pankhuri Pathak of Congress and SP’s Sunil Chaudhary.

Mriganka Singh (BJP) from Kairana sea Trailing

Hasan’s rival Mriganka Singh, the eldest of four daughters of the late Hukum Singh, a three-time BJP MP from Kairana. Mriganka and Hasan has beeing facing a challenge from Nahid Hasan’s sister Iqra Chaudhary who have fileded her nomination as an independent candidate. Nahid and Iqra Hasan, on the other hand, are children of former legislators Tabassum Hasan and the late CH Munawwar Hasan.

Sandeep Kumar Singh

Sandeep Kumar Singh, Kalyan Singh’s grandson, has been fielded from BJP against former SP MLA Viresh Yadav from Atrauli assembly seat.

Baby Rani Maurya

Baby Rani Maurya, former Uttarakhand Governor, is contesting from Agra Rural on a BJP ticket against RLD’s Mahesh Kumar Jatav

Swami Prasad Murya

Swami Prasad Murya, UP ex-minister Swami Prasad Maurya who joined Samajwadi Party few days before polling, is facing a stiff challenge in Fazilnagar from BJP’s Surender Singh Kushwaha, who is also a prominent OBC face and the son of sitting BJP MLA Ganga Singh Kushwaha.

Keshav Prasad Maurya (BJP) from Sirathu seat Leading

The BJP has fielded Keshav Prasad Maurya from Sirathu assembly seat while the Samajwadi Party has fielded Anupriya Patel’s sister Pallavi Patel of Apna Dal (Kamerawadi). Sirathu is a high profile assembly constituency in Kaushambi district adjoining Prayagraj.

Shivpal Singh Yadav Leading

Shivpal Singh Yadav, a five time MLA, is contesting from Jaswantnagar assembly seats on the symbol of bicycle. Despite the Modi wave in 2017, the BJP could not bloom the lotus on Jaswantnagar seat. Since 1967, Jaswantnagar constituency has been represented by the Mulayam clan except 1969 and 1980 when Congress had won from here.

Puja Shukla

Pooja Shukla, who came into limelight in 2017 when she tried to stop Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s cavalcade in Lucknow to protest against government policies, is contesting on Samajwadi ticket from Lucknow North seat.

Shukla, one of the yongest candidate in Uttar Pradesh election, is facing BJP’s Neeraj Bora. She had met Akhilesh Yadav after staying 20 days in jail. Following which, she met SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and became the face of Samajwadi Chatra Sabha, the party’s student wing.

The BJP is heading for a big win in Uttar Pradesh and is looking to retain powers in Uttar Pradesh. Early numbers show that the BJP is ahead while the SP is trying to catch up the trends.

As per the early trends, the BJP has crossed the halfway mark.

As per the EC’s first round data, the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is leading from Mainpuri’s Karhal seat by 2000 votes. The BJP has fielded SP Singh Baghel against the SP chief. This assembly is among the UP’s high voltage seat.

Uttar Pradesh has not returned a government to power since 1985.

After the seventh phase polling in UP’s Poorvanchal, the exit polls was predicting a massive win for the BJP in UP and unexpected change of government by Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab