2002 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election

2002 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election

← 1996 February - March 2002 2007 →
All 403 seats of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly 202 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	53.80% ( 1.93%)
Majority party Minority party   Leader Mulayam Singh Yadav Mayawati Party SP BSP Leader's seat Did not contest Harora Jahangirganj Last election 107 65 Seats won 143 98 Seat change 36 33 Popular vote 13,612,509 12,374,388 Percentage 25.37% 23.06% Swing 3.57% 3.42%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Rajnath Singh Pramod Tiwari Party BJP INC Alliance NDA - Leader's seat Haidergarh Rampur Khas Last election 151 31 Seats won 88 25 Seat change 63 6 Popular vote 10,776,078 4,810,231 Percentage 20.08% 8.96% Swing 12.44% 0.61%   Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Chaudhary Ajit Singh Kalyan Singh Party RLD Rashtriya Kranti Party Leader's seat Not Contested Atrauli Last election New New Seats won 14 4 Seat change New New Popular vote 1,332,810 1,812,535 Percentage 2.48% 3.38% Swing New New
Chief Minister before election Rajnath Singh BJP Elected Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav SP

Elections to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly were held in 2002. Following a spell of 56 days of President’s Rule from 3 March to 2 May 2002, Mayawati became Chief Minister on 3 May 2002 for the third time after the BJP extended support to the BSP. BJP state president Kalraj Mishra resigned, and was replaced by Vinay Katiyar, who thought up slogans like "Haathi nahin Ganesh hai, Brahma Vishnu Mahesh hai" to defend the alliance. But the problems kept mounting, and Mayawati resigned in August 2003.

On 29 August 2003, Mulayam Singh Yadav was sworn in as the Chief Minister with the support of BSP dissidents and ran the government until 2007. It is said that BJP leaders convinced Vajpayee that Yadav would help in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections — Mulayam did not, however, help, and while the NDA lost power at the Centre. Some BJP leaders continue to believe that Mulayam would have been marginalized had he not been helped in 2003.^[1]