ABSTRACT
The sweeping victory of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2017 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election is a repetition of the 2014 Lok Sabha election. In this chapter, the structural factors resulting in the sweeping victory of BJP are explored based on the data of the Legislative Assembly election and population census. First, it can be said that socio-economic modernization has accelerated changes that have favoured the BJP. Second, it is most likely that the groups that tilted to the BJP were the relatively weaker sections among Dalits other than Jatav/Chamar which are core support castes for Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), as well as Other Backward Classes other than the Yadav which is a core support caste for Samajwadi Party (SP). Third, it is confirmed that Muslims supported SP and Indian National Congress combination. The BJP government under Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is dependent on the support of these relatively weaker Hindu castes as well as the higher castes. To satisfy these heterogeneous social strata, the BJP government has to assign greater emphasis to its good governance and development agendas, which would make it easy for BJP to pursue its Hindutva agenda.
