UP Assembly Polls 2022: How important is Pandavas capital Hastinapur to form government in state

Since Hastinapur constituency in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district came into existence, the assembly election results in the state have shown that whichever political party won this legislative assembly seat has always formed the government in the state.

Beginning from 1957, when the constituency came into existence and Congress won the seat and eventually formed the government till Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) came into power in 2017, all the parties which formed the government conquered this seat.

According to Hindu mythology, Hastinapur was the capital of the Pandavas who ruled from there, after the Mahabharata war. In 1957, Congress candidate Bishambhar Singh won the seat defeating the Communist Party of India's (CPI) Pritam Singh. Congress went on to form the state government with Sampuranand as its chief minister. In 1962 and 1967 as well, Congress won the Hastinapur seat and formed the government. Since 1967, Hastinapur has been the only reserved seat for scheduled caste candidates in the Meerut district.

In 1969, Congress lost the seat to Bharatiya Kranti Dal's (BKD) Asha Ram Indu. BKD was formed by Chaudhary Charan Singh following his separation from Congress in 1967. Later on, Singh went on to become the UP Chief Minister for the second time in 1969. Congress won the seat again in 1974 with Revti Raman Maurya winning the Hastinapur seat and then Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna became the chief minister. 

The party held the power in 1976 when ND Tiwari was the state's chief minister. In 1977, Revti Raman Maurya won the elections as a Janata Party (JP) candidate and as had become the ritual, JP leader Ram Naresh Yadav went on to become the state chief minister. 

In 1980, Jhaggar Singh from Congress (I) won the election from the seat and Vishwanath Pratap Singh became Chief Minister. In 1985, Harsharan Singh from Congress won the seat and ND Tiwari again became the Chief Minister. In 1989, Mulayam Singh Yadav became the chief minister and in the same year, Jhaggad Singh won the Hastinapur seat as a Janata Dal (Socialist) candidate. In the 11th and 12th legislative assemblies, elections did not take place in the Hastinapur constituency. In 1996, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) formed the government in Uttar Pradesh and party candidate Atul Khatik had grabbed the Hastinapur seat.

Samajwadi candidate Prabhu Dayal Balmiki first won from Hastinapur in 2002 where Mayawati held the chief minister post for more than one year and then Mulayam Singh Yadav gained power for the rest of the period. In 2007, Yogesh Verma from BSP won the seat and Mayawati formed the government in the state. In 2012 polls, Balmiki again emerged victorious by a narrow margin of 6,641 votes over BSP candidate Yogesh Verma. Akhilesh Yadav became the state`s chief minister. 

In 2017, BJP's Dinesh Khatik defeated then BSP Yogesh Verma and Yogi Adityanath became Uttar Pradesh's chief minister. However, both the candidates are in the fray this time although Verma is contesting as an SP-RLD candidate. Congress has fielded Archana Gautam as its candidate on this seat and Sanjeev Jatav is fielded by BSP. When BJP's Dinesh Khatik was asked about this electoral coincidence, he told ANI, "Whoever wins Hastinapur, forms the government in UP. I have blessings of all and Yogi Adityanath will again form the govt. Under the leadership of Yogiji and Modi ji, we have provided benefits to all sections, women have also become empowered."

It will be interesting to see who will win the Hastinapur seat in the 2022 state polls and if the winning party again forms the government in Uttar Pradesh. The seven-phase election in Uttar Pradesh will be held on February 10, 14, 20, 23, 27, and March 3 and 7. Hastinapur will go for polling on February 10.