Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly election, 2012

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8 February 2012 (2012-02-08) – 3 March 2012 (2012-03-03)

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All 403 assembly constituencies

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Leader	Mulayam Singh Yadav	Mayawati	Uma Bharati
Party	SP	BSP	BJP
Leader's seat	Not Contested	MLC	Charkhari
Last election	97	206	51
Seats won	224	80	47
Seat change	127	126	4

	Fourth party	Fifth party

Leader		Chaudhary Ajit Singh
Party	INC	RLD
Last election	22	10
Seats won	28	9
Seat change	6	1

Chief Minister before election

Mayawati
BSP

Elected Chief Minister

Akhilesh Yadav
SP

The Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly election followed as a result the expiration of the five-year term of the previous legislature elected in Uttar Pradesh, India. The election to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly was held in seven phases from 8 February through 3 March 2012. Uttar Pradesh has the world's largest population for a sub-national democracy. The incumbent chief minister Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, which previously won an absolute majority of seats, was defeated by Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, which gained an absolute majority in the election. Mulayam's son and Samajwadi party president Akhilesh Yadav was nominated as chief minister by the party.

Uttar Pradesh is the largest province in India in terms of population, but the fourth largest in terms of landmass after the bifurcation to create Uttarakhand. It is also considered politically important because of the number of seats it returns to the Lok Sabha and as including the constituencies of such nationally notable figures as Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Varun Gandhi and Maneka Gandhi of the Nehru-Gandhi family dynasty. It was also previously the home of Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Atal Behari Vajpayee.