UP Assembly Bypolls: BJP Wins 7 Out of 11 Seats; SP Takes 3

SP has managed to wrest Zaidpur constituency from the BJP where Gaurav Kumar has secured victory by 4, 165 votes.

The BJP has held on to all the seats it had won in 2017 except for Zaidpur constituency. 

(Illustration: The Quint)

The Bharatiya Janata Party, along with its ally, has won eight of the 11 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh that went to bypolls on Monday, 21 October.

While the BJP is won in seven seats, its ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) is emerged victorious in Pratapgarh according to data published by the Election Commission on its website. With the exception of Barabanki district’s Zaidpur constituency where Samajwadi Party won, the BJP held on to all the seats it had won in the 2017 state elections.

The Congress, however, has failed to lead in any of the seats.

In 2017, BJP had swept the UP Assembly elections, winning 325 out of 403 seats. The seats had fallen vacant after the the elected MLAs went on to become MPs in the recent Lok Sabha Elections in May.

The final party wise wise results in the eleven constituencies are as follows:

BJP: 7
SP: 3
Apna Dal (Sonelal): 1
BSP: 0
Congress: 0

While the BJP contested 10 of the 11 seats in the bypolls, one seat had been left to its ally, Apna Dal. The Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party had fielded candidates in all the eleven constituencies. BSP and Congress, however, both drew a blank

Bypolls to Rampur and Lucknow Cantonments were among the most keenly watched contests. While nine-time MLA from Rampur SP’s Azam Khan was elected to the Lok Sabha from the same parliamentary constituency, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who had won the Lucknow Cantonment seat, won the 2019 Parliamentary elections from Prayagraj (previously Allahabad).

SP’s Tazeem Fatma is currently holding the seat and is leading BJP’s Bharat Bhushan by over 7,500 votes. In Lucknow Cantonment, BJP’s Suresh Chandra Tiwari has a comfortable lead of 35, 428 votes over closest rival Major Ashish Chaturvedi of SP.

SP, according to data published by the Election Commission, has managed to wrest Zaidpur constituecy from the BJP where Gaurav Kumar has secured victory by 4, 165 votes.

What is clear from the UP Assembly Bypolls is that Samajwadi Party has emerged as the primary opposition to the BJP in the state. It has won 3 seats in the current bypolls and gave the BJP a fight in the Hamirpur bypolls in September.