2002 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election

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.

2002 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election

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 Not Contested Harora Jahangirganj Last election 110 66 Seats won 143 98 Seat change 36 32 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 156 33 Seats won 88 25 Seat change 68 8 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 party New party Seats won 14 4 Seat change 14 4 Popular vote 1,332,810 1,812,535 Percentage 2.48% 3.38% Swing 2.48% 3.38%
Chief Minister before election Rajnath Singh Bharatiya Janata Party Elected Chief Minister Mayawati Bahujan Samaj Party

On 29 August Mulayam was sworn in as CM with the support of BSP dissidents and ran the government until 2007. It is said that BJP leaders convinced Vajpayee that Mulayam would help in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections — Mulayam did not, however, help, and while the NDA lost power at the Centre, the SP got 39 Lok Sabha seats, its highest ever. Some BJP leaders continue to believe that Mulayam would have been marginalized had he not been helped in 2003.[1]