Contrary to the popular perception that postal votes go decisively in favour of BJP, Samajwadi Party and its allies actually won over half of all postal votes cast in the state assembly polls in UP while BJP and its allies got just about a third of such votes.
While the postal ballot facility is available to some other categories too, the overwhelming majority of these come from those in the defence services and paramilitary forces. The shares of various parties in postal votes likely mirror the presence of their social bases in the armed and paramilitary forces.
In UP, a total of just over 4.4 lakh postal votes were cast in these polls. Of these, SP and its allies won nearly 2.3 lakh or 51.5% while the BJP-led alliance got under 1.5 lakh or 33.3%. BSP with nearly 49,000 postal votes was the third major choice with 11.1% of total votes, while Congress got 9,001 or 2.2% of the total, in line with its share of 2.3% in all votes.