Gaps show up in BJP’s national arithmetic

Tue, 28 Dec 2021 12:26:26 +0000

It’s an oft repeated theory that the road to Delhi lies through Uttar Pradesh that sends 80 MPs to parliament and all eyes are on the assembly elections in the first quarter of 2022. But after UP, the states that send the largest numbers of MPs to Parliament are Maharashtra that has 48 Lok Sabha seats and West Bengal that has 42. In the 2019 national election, beyond a near sweep of Uttar Pradesh, the BJP had won 23 seats from Maharashtra in an alliance with the Shiv Sena (that got 18) while the party also pulled a surprise when it won 18 seats in West Bengal.