The Bharatiya Janata Party won power in Uttar Pradesh in a landslide, unseating the Janata Dal government.

It won 221 of the 419 seats on offer.

That left it 11 seats clear of a majority.

The JD finished second with 92 seats.

The BJP took 52.7% of the seats on 31.5% of the vote, so under a third of the vote gave it a majority of the seats.

Lal Krishna Advani set out from Somnath on a Ram Rath Yatra on 25 September 1990, campaigning for a temple at Ayodhya. Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh authorised Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to arrest him as the yatra reached Uttar Pradesh on 23 October 1990, ending it short of Ayodhya.¹

On 30 October and 2 November 1990, Uttar Pradesh police fired on kar sevaks who breached prohibitory orders at Ayodhya, under Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav's government. An official toll counted 15 dead; a 2017 court filing by a victim's widow cited 28 deaths.²

Congress withdrew support from Mulayam Singh Yadav's Janata Dal government in Uttar Pradesh in April 1991, echoing its earlier withdrawal from Chandra Shekhar's central government. The government fell, the assembly dissolved, and a mid-term election followed later that year.³

Uttar Pradesh's assembly poll was held alongside the 1991 general election, originally scheduled for 20 May, 12 and 15 June. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated on 21 May, a day after the first phase, and the remaining phases were postponed to 12 and 15 June.⁴

JD's government collapsed here.

92 of its seats went directly to the BJP, more than moved between any other pair of parties, out of 279 seats that changed hands.

BJP itself grew from 57 seats to 221.

Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, fell -2.6 pp from the previous election.

The closest race was at Lalganj, Uttar Pradesh, decided by a margin of 24 votes — how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second.

Chhaprauli, Uttar Pradesh saw the widest margin of the election, with the winner ahead by 65.6% of the vote.

Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest turnout of any seat, at 65.2%.

Kadipur, Uttar Pradesh was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 14,94,090 names on its rolls.

Agra Cantonment, Uttar Pradesh drew the largest field of the election, with 47 candidates on the ballot.

Held in June 1977, shortly after the national Emergency ended, the Janata Party won 352 of Uttar Pradesh's 425 seats, ending the Indian National Congress's unbroken run in the state since its first election in 1951.⁵

The Indian National Congress, in office since that first 1951 election, fell to 47 seats and lost power in the state for the first time since independence.⁵