How Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati's mistakes helped Modi win UP polls

There is more to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mind-boggling sweep in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections than can be explained by factors like his persona, Modi’s aggressive, high profile campaign in the state, the caste configuration of the state or for that matter, the communal turn of his campaign.

Perhaps, the win is also a consequence of the sustained attacks that the Akhilesh Yadav-Rahul Gandhi duo and BSP supremo Mayawati launched against some of Modi’s policies.

Gandhi’s outburst against the army’s surgical strikes on terror camps along the Line of Control – which he termed as “khoon ki dalaali” –