ISAS Briefs

India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, elected a new Chief Minister in its recently-concluded election. Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (B SP) won 206 seats in the 402-member state assembly, becoming the first political outfit in the last 14 years to obtain an absolutely majority in the state. In the election held from 7 April to 8 May 2007, the northern Indian state, with a population of 180 million, witnessed uniformed polling, with a voter turnout of 46.13 per cent. This was about 7.67 per cent lower than that in the last assembly election in 2002