UP Results Live Infographic: Here is How Big Netas and Key Candidates Are Faring

Here are the key candidates of Uttar Pradesh and a status-check of whether they are leading or trailing.

As the leads and results come in thick and fast on counting day, here is a live infographic to help you track how the big netas and key candidates are faring.

In the 2017 UP Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won more than a two-thirds majority, bagging 312 of the 403 seats in the state, with the Samajwadi Party (SP) a distant second with 47 seats, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) winning 19 seats, and the Congress winning seven seats.

Here are the key candidates and a status-check of whether they are leading or trailing:

Key Candidates

Yogi Adityanath (BJP)

Incumbent Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made his debut in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, contesting from the Gorakhpur Urban seat.

Adityanath has previously contested the Lok Sabha polls from Gorakhpur five times between 1994 and 2014. He did not fight the 2014 state Assembly elections, and was instead elected to the UP Legislative Council.

Akhilesh Yadav (SP)

The Samajwadi Party chief is contesting from the Karhal seat, and running against Union Minister and BJP candidate SP Singh Baghel.

The constituency has a total of around 3.71 lakh voters, including 1.44 lakh Yadavs, 35,000 Shakya voters, 34,000 Jatavs, 25,000 Thakurs, 14,000 Brahmins, and 14,000 Muslims. It also has 14,000 Pal voters, 17,000 Katherias, 10,000 Lodhis, and 3,000 Vaishya voters.

Keshav Prasad Maurya (BJP)

UP's Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, the party's biggest OBC face, is contesting from Sirathu in Kaushambi district.

One of the key candidates in the fray in this phase, Maurya is up against Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) candidate Pallavi Patel. Pallavi is the younger sister of Union Minister Anupriya Patel, whose faction Apna Dal (Sonelal) continues to be with the BJP.

Mohammad Azam Khan (SP)

Mohammad Azam Khan, veteran SP leader and nine-term MLA from Rampur contested from Rampur once again.

Khan has been lodged in Sitapur jail since February 2020 last year over several cases registered against him. He is facing charges of encroachment of land around Rampur's Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, where he was the chancellor.

Meanwhile, his son, Abdullah Azam, has been declared candidate from the Suar seat.

Om Prakash Rajbhar (SBSP)

The former BJP ally, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, is contesting from the Zahoorabad seat. He has been one of the strongest voices of non-Yadav OBC opposition to the BJP.

He was earlier BJP's ally in the 2017 elections. Rajbhar's SBSP is now also a part of the SP-led alliance.

Swami Prasad Maurya (SP)

BJP turncoat and prominent OBC face Swami Prasad Maurya, an import from the BSP who helped BJP increase its support among the Maurya-Kushwaha-Shakya community, is now with the SP.

He was a candidate from the Fazilnagar seat in Kushinagar district which witnessed 56 percent polling. The seat had seen 55.3 percent polling in 2017, and 55 percent in 2012.

Ajay Kumar Lallu (Congress)

Currently serving as president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, Lallu represents the Tamkuhi Raj constituency in the Kushinagar district.

He had emerged victorious on the seat in the 2012 and 2017 Assembly polls, and is now looking to score a hat-trick. He is contesting against the BJP's Aseem Kumar Rai, who is likely to attract the vote of the Nishad community, and the SP's Udai Gupta.

Chandrashekhar Azad 'Ravan' (Azad Samaj Party)

Lawyer and Dalit-Bahujan rights activist Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan, who is also the co-founder and national president of the Bhim Army, will be taking on the BJP's Yogi Adityanath in Gorakhpur Urban, where a large number of voters are categorised as belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

Suresh Rana (BJP)

UP Cane Development Minister and BJP leader Suresh Rana will face a challenge from Congress' Satya Sayyam Saini and RLD's Ashraf Ali, the former chairperson of the Jalalabad civic body, for the Thana Bhawan seat.

In the 2017 polls, Rana, who was also named in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, beat the BSP's Abdul Waris Khan by a margin of over 16,000 votes. However, in the 2012 polls, Rana had just managed to beat RLD's Ashraf Ali by a margin of 265 votes.

Raghuraj Pratap Singh 'Raja Bhaiya' (JSDL)

Jansatta Dal Loktantrik's Raghuraj Pratap Singh is contesting from Kunda.

Also known as Raja Bhaiya, Singh will be hoping for a seventh straight win. Having been representing the Kunda constituency as an independent MLA since 1993, he is contesting on behalf of the Jansatta Dal this time. He will go up against Samajwadi Party's Gulshan Yadav.