UP's politics is dominated by four major forces: the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), built around Hindutva, national security and welfare-scheme delivery under Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath; the Samajwadi Party (SP), a socialist party founded by Mulayam Singh Yadav and now led by Akhilesh Yadav, traditionally strong among Yadavs and Muslims; the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) led by Mayawati, built on Dalit assertion; and the Indian National Congress (INC), the state's oldest party, now rebuilding through the Gandhi family's Amethi–Rae Bareli belt. Smaller but influential regional players include the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) of Jayant Chaudhary (Jat-dominated Western UP), the Apna Dal (Sonelal) of Anupriya Patel (Kurmi/OBC base), the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) of Om Prakash Rajbhar, and the newly emergent Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) of Chandrashekhar Azad, which appeals to young Dalit voters outside the BSP fold.

For 2024, the BJP contested as part of the NDA alongside RLD, Apna Dal (S) and SBSP, while SP and INC formed the core of the INDIA bloc. Ahead of the polls, Akhilesh Yadav sharpened the SP's PDA formula — Picchhda (backward castes), Dalit and Alpsankhyak (minorities) — fielding a large number of non-Yadav OBC candidates from Kurmi, Maurya-Kushwaha and Pasi communities to widen the party's traditional Yadav-Muslim base. The BSP, which had swept 2007's assembly polls, contested alone and failed to open its account.

Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state, home to over 240 million people, and sends the largest contingent to Parliament — 80 members to the Lok Sabha, more than any other state. Its capital is Lucknow, and its major cities include Kanpur, Varanasi, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Agra, Meerut and Gorakhpur. Geographically the state is split across regions such as Western UP, Rohilkhand, Central UP, Bundelkhand, Awadh and Poorvanchal (Eastern UP), each with its own caste, religious and economic composition that shapes voting behaviour.

Uttar Pradesh has given India eight prime ministers, more than any other state, and is widely regarded as the state that "decides Delhi" — no party has ever formed a majority government at the Centre without a strong showing in UP. Its 403-member Legislative Assembly (Vidhan Sabha) is itself the largest in the country, making UP a perpetual focal point of national politics.

The 2024 Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh witnessed a direct contest between the NDA (BJP + RLD + Apna Dal(S) + SBSP) and the INDIA bloc (SP + INC + AITC). The BJP, under the leadership of Narendra Modi and CM Yogi Adityanath, sought to retain its dominance built on Hindutva, national security and welfare-scheme delivery, while the opposition INDIA bloc, led by Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, aimed to capitalize on anti-incumbency and caste arithmetic.

The election was defined by several key factors: the SP's PDA formula — Picchhda (backward castes), Dalit and Alpsankhyak (minorities) — which saw the party field a large number of non-Yadav OBC candidates from Kurmi, Maurya-Kushwaha and Pasi communities to widen its traditional Yadav-Muslim base. The BSP under Mayawati, which had swept the 2007 assembly polls, contested alone and failed to open its account, while the newly emergent Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) of Chandrashekhar Azad made a spectacular debut by winning the Nagina (SC) seat.

High-profile contests defined the election narrative: Varanasi saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi defeat Congress's Ajay Rai; Rae Bareli witnessed Rahul Gandhi's comfortable victory over BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh; Amethi saw Kishori Lal Sharma pull off a stunning upset against Smriti Irani; and Faizabad — home to the newly constructed Ram Mandir — saw the BJP suffer a shock defeat at the hands of SP's Awadhesh Prasad. The results reshaped the national political arithmetic, with the INDIA bloc winning 43 seats despite the NDA securing a marginally higher vote share of 43.69%.

The 2024 general election in Uttar Pradesh was conducted across all seven phases — the only way UP has ever voted, along with Bihar and West Bengal, given its scale. Polling ran from 19 April to 1 June 2024, with results declared on 4 June. Nearly every opinion and exit poll predicted a landslide NDA sweep of 65–75 seats; instead the INDIA bloc produced one of the biggest upsets of the election, winning 43 of 80 seats even though the NDA edged it narrowly on vote share (43.69% vs 43.52%).

This map plots the winning party in every one of Uttar Pradesh's 80 Lok Sabha constituencies. The Samajwadi Party emerged as the single largest party in the state with 37 seats, concentrated across central, western and eastern UP. The BJP held on to 33 seats, largely in its traditional strongholds — Mathura, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Ghaziabad and much of Rohilkhand — but lost ground sharply compared to 2019. The Congress won 6 seats, its best UP tally in over two decades, driven by the Amethi–Rae Bareli belt and a resurgence in parts of Awadh.

Zooming out from individual parties to alliances tells the real story of 2024: the INDIA bloc (SP + INC + AITC) took 43 seats against the NDA's (BJP + RLD + AD(S) + SBSP) 36 seats, with one seat — Nagina — going to ASP(KR) contesting outside both blocs. Despite the seat gap, the NDA's vote share (43.69%) narrowly exceeded INDIA's (43.52%), a sign of how efficiently the opposition's votes were distributed across close contests.

Complete constituency-wise results for all 80 seats of Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The table below shows the winner, runner-up, party affiliations, and margin of victory for each constituency.

Uttar Pradesh's 80 Lok Sabha seats are built from 403 assembly segments. Looking at which party led in each segment during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls gives a more granular read on ground-level strength — useful as an early indicator ahead of future assembly elections. The SP led in 184 segments, the single largest tally, followed by the BJP with 162. Congress led in 39 segments, more than double its seat count, reflecting close-but-short finishes in several constituencies it ultimately lost.

Taken together, 2024 marked one of the sharpest political shifts UP has seen this decade. The BJP's tally more than halved from 62 to 33, the INDIA bloc's PDA-driven campaign delivered a landslide 43 seats to SP+INC, and a first-time entrant, ASP(KR), won its debut seat. The result reshaped the national arithmetic for the NDA, which had to lean on allies from Andhra Pradesh and Bihar to retain its Lok Sabha majority.

The 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election was held in seven phases from 10 February to 7 March 2022 to elect all 403 members of the 18th Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. The results were declared on 10 March 2022.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secured a decisive victory, winning 273 seats (BJP 255, AD(S) 12, NISHAD 6). The Samajwadi Party (SP) led alliance won 125 seats (SP 111, RLD 8, SBSP 6). The Indian National Congress won 2 seats, Bahujan Samaj Party won 1 seat, and others won 2 seats.

This map shows the winning party in each of the 403 constituencies of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election 2022. The BJP won a majority across the state, with the Samajwadi Party performing strongly in certain regions.

Complete constituency-wise results for all 403 seats of Uttar Pradesh in the 2022 Vidhan Sabha election.