Too early to say

On the morning of March 6, when initial Uttar Pradesh election results’ trends were being shown on news channels, the media team of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) jumped with joy to see the party leading in as many as 71 seats — on a par with the Samajwadi Party. The BJP’s spokespersons started announcing that the party could form the government in Uttar Pradesh on its own. However, as the day passed and it became clear that the BJP might not even cross 50 seats in the state, Member of Parliament and son of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, Anurag Thakur, was relieved that he did not claim the BJP would form the government when he was live on television. He said he realised there was probably something wrong.

The Election Commission had started counting seats of those areas first where the party enjoys a stronghold.