ISAS Special Reports

The importance of the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh (UP) to Indian politics cannot be overstated. UP is India’s largest and most populous state and success in UP is often seen as a barometer for the national polls. The State assumes even greater importance today since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 71 of its 282 seats in the directly-elected Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) from UP in the 2014 national elections. The number of members that UP sends to the Lok Sabha is 80, the largest for any State, out of a total of 543. Hence, the BJP’s overwhelming victory in the 2017 UP Assembly elections holds important lessons for national politics as well as for the BJP’s prospects in the 2019 national elections. The Institute of South Asian Studies organised a workshop on “The State of Uttar Pradesh: Indian State Elections and their Implications” in Singapore on 12 April 2017 to discuss the UP elections.