As in 2007, a highly organised regional party with strong local leadership and a committed vote bank reaped an anti-incumbency sentiment in Uttar Pradesh. Decisive verdicts in two successive assembly polls of Uttar Pradesh in favour of regional parties, first to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and now the Samajwadi Party (SP), have enormous political implications at the state as well as national level. As both the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fade in a State not so long ago destined by analysts to fractured mandates and hung assemblies it appears to be settling down into a steadier contest between the regional heavyweights.