The Bharatiya Janata Party has received a rude shock in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency, Varanasi, after two Samajwadi Party candidates wrested away two Legislative Council seats held by the party in power at the state and the Centre, reported NDTV.
While the Samajwadi Party’s candidate Lal Bihari Yadav won the Teachers’ seat in Varanasi Division, his colleague Ashutosh Sinha won from the Graduates’ seat in the same division.
According to HT, while Lal Bihari polled 7,766 votes, followed by Dr Pramod Kumar Mishra of the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh, who got 6,830 votes. The sitting BJP candidate Chetnarayan Singh finished a distant third with only 4,858 votes.
The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council is the upper house of the state legislature.
On 1 December, elections to the Legislative Council was held for 11 seats, including six teachers’ constituencies and five graduate constituencies. While school teachers instructing in class 10 and above register themselves as voters for the teachers seat, any person who graduated at least three years from the date of elections can vote for the graduate’s seat.
While the BJP won four of the 11 seats, the SP won three and two were won by independent candidates. Results for the remaining four are yet to be declared.
(With inputs from NDTV and Hindustan Times.)
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