The Samajwadi Party won power in Uttar Pradesh outright, taking enough seats to govern without allies.

It won 224 of the 403 seats on offer.

That left it 22 seats clear of a majority.

The SP took 55.6% of the seats on 29.1% of the vote.

Its nearest rival, the Bahujan Samaj Party, won 80 seats on 25.9% of the vote.

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi began his campaign for the Uttar Pradesh election on 14 November 2011, before the Election Commission had announced the phases of polling.¹

On 24 December, the Election Commission announced that voting would run in seven phases through February, with results due on 3 March. It later moved the first phase's date from 4 to 8 February.²

On 7 January, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi ordered political statues other than Mohandas Gandhi's veiled, along with the elephant statues that are the Bahujan Samaj Party's own symbol, erected under Chief Minister Mayawati.³

On 10 January, the Commission notified minister Salman Khurshid after a Bharatiya Janata Party complaint over his promise to double the Muslim quota to nine percent, and censured him for breaching the model code on 9 February.⁴

BJP released its manifesto on 16 January, promising 15 million jobs and subsidised rice and wheat. The Samajwadi Party released its own manifesto four days later, promising reservation for minorities, a ban on land acquisition, and farm loans at four percent interest for small farmers.⁵⁶

BSP lost its majority and collapsed at this election.

SP itself grew from 97 seats to 224 seats this time.

Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, rose +13.6 pp from the previous election — the highest the state had recorded to that point.

It was 22 seats clear of the majority mark, enough to govern without needing allies.

The closest race was Baheri, Uttar Pradesh, decided by a margin — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second — of 18 votes.

Kunda, Uttar Pradesh saw the widest margin of the election, at 53.8% of the vote.

Nakur, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest turnout of any seat, at 77.2%.

Sahibabad, Uttar Pradesh was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 6,76,637 names on the rolls.

Govind Nagar, Uttar Pradesh drew the most crowded ballot in the state, with 34 candidates standing.

On average, 17.0 candidates contested each seat that year.

The Samajwadi Party was founded in Lucknow in 1992 by Mulayam Singh Yadav, together with fellow socialist leader Beni Prasad Verma, after splitting from the Janata Dal.⁷

Uttar Pradesh's own assembly had shrunk from 425 seats to 403 after the state of Uttarakhand was carved out of its northern hill districts in 2000.⁸

Its main 2012 rival, the Bahujan Samaj Party, had won an outright majority of its own five years earlier under Mayawati, the first time it had governed without coalition support.⁹