Not only did the BJP win 81% of seats in 2014, but it did so with a massive margin. There are four major political parties in the fray in UP–the ruling SP, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Congress (INC) and the BJP. These parties have historically contested the UP elections independently.
In a four-cornered, first-past-the-post system, the winning party needs only a 25-30% vote share in each constituency. The BJP won 253 out of the 403 constituencies with greater than 40% vote share in the 2014 elections. This suggests that even if there had been opposition unity, the BJP may have still won well more than half of all seats.
Further, it won an outright majority (more than 50% of votes) in 94 constituencies. There has been no political party that has won so many seats in UP with such huge margins in recent history.
(Sourced from agencies, feature image courtesy:oneindia.com)
