UP bypolls: BJP trounces SP, registers win in SP stronghold

BJP and its allies won seven of the nine seats to which elections were held, while wresting two seats from the main opposition party.

Police and security personnel stand guard outside a counting center amid the counting of votes for the Sisamau Assembly by-election in Kanpur. 

Credit: PTI Photo 

Lucknow: BJP trounced the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly bypolls winning seven of the nine seats, which went into polls, with its alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and in the process wrested two seats from the main opposition party.

BJP won Katehri, Manjhawa, Khair, Ghaziabad, Phulpur and Kundarki seats while the RLD won Mirapur seats defeating their SP rivals.

The SP could win only Sisamau and Karhal seats. 

While chief minister Yogi Adityanath gave prime minister Narendra Modi the credit for the impressive win of the saffron party, SP president Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of misusing the official machinery to win the polls.

The saffron party recorded a thumping victory in the SP stronghold of Kundarki by winning the seat by over 1.43 lakh votes.

Incidentally BJP had not been able to win the Kundarki seat in the past 32 years. Kundarki had around 60 per cent Muslim voters. The SP nominee Haji Rizvan lost his security deposit.

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According to the official sources, BJP nominee Dharm Raj Nishad defeated his nearest SP rival Shobhawati Verma by over 25,000 votes. BJP’s Surendra Diler made a hat-trick by winning the Khair Assembly seat defeating SP’s Charu Kain by over 38,000 votes for the third time. RLD’s Mithilesh Pal won from Mirapur while BJP’s Deepak Patel emerged victorious from Phulpur seat.

SP, however, was able to hold onto its traditional Karhal seat (vacated by party chief Akhilesh Yadav) where the party candidate Tej Pratap Singh defeated the BJP nominee by over 14 thousand votes.

BJP also won the Kedarnath Assembly seat in the neighbouring Uttarakhand where its nominee Asha Nautiyal defeated an independent candidate.

The victory was significant for the BJP as it came after its dismal performance in the state in the Lok Sabha polls held barely five months back when the BJP saw its tally going down to 33 from 62 in the 2019 LS elections.