New Delhi:
The Bharatiya Janata Party has won three of nine Uttar Pradesh Assembly bypolls held this week, and is leading in three others, as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reasserts control over a state at the core of the BJP’s Hindi voter base.
At 4.15 pm, the BJP had won the Ghaziabad, Khair, and Phulpur seats, and was ahead in Kundarki, Katehari, and Majhawan. The Rashtriya Lok Dal, an ally, was ahead in Meerapur.
The Samajwadi Party – which defeated the BJP in the April-June federal election, scooping up 42 of the state’s 80 seats (up 37 from last time) – had won Karhal and Sishamau.
Karhal is party boss Akhilesh Yadav‘s bastion; Mr Yadav won by nearly 70,000 votes in the 2022 election, extending his party’s hold on the seat to over three decades.
The bypolls were triggered after sitting MLAs – including Mr Yadav – were elected to the Lok Sabha.
In Meerapur, the RLD’s Mithlesh Pal is over 30,000 votes ahead of her nearest rival, the SP’s Sumbul Rana. The seat was won by the RLD, by Chandan Chauhan, in the last election.
In Kundarki, Ramveer Singh has a massive lead, of over 1.23 lakh, over the SP’s Mohd Rizwan and, barring the most unlikely turn of events, will flip the seat won by the rival party in 2022.
The Ghaziabad seat has remained with the BJP; Atul Garg won it for the saffron party last time and Sanjeev Sharma retained it for the party today. He beat the SP’s Singh Jatav by over 63,000 votes.
The BJP also retained Khair and Phulpur; Surender Diler and Deepak Patel defeated their SP rivals, Charu Kain and Mohd Siddique, by nearly 40,000 and around 12,000 votes, respectively.
The BJP is also en route to claim the Katehari seat won by the Samajwadi Party in the last election; Dharmraj Nishad is nearly 30,000 votes ahead of the SP’s Shobawati Verma.
And finally, in Majhawan, the BJP’s Shuchismita Maurya leads Dr Jyoti Bind of the SP by 5,000-odd votes; this seat was won by the NISHAD Party in the last election.
Overall, the ruling party has not only retained the three seats it won in 2022 but is also set to flip two others – Kundarki and Katehari – while also likely to pick up a sixth from allies NISHAD Party.
As the results trickled in, Yogi Adityanath posted a triumphant message on X.
“Victory of BJP-NDA in UP Assembly bypolls is a testament to people’s unwavering faith in the successful leadership and guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This victory is the result of the security, good governance, and public welfare policies of the double-engine government and hard work of dedicated workers. I express my gratitude to the respected voters of UP,” he declared in Hindi.
उत्तर प्रदेश के विधानसभा उपचुनावों में भाजपा-एनडीए की विजय आदरणीय प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी के यशस्वी नेतृत्व एवं मार्गदर्शन पर जनता-जनार्दन के अटूट विश्वास की मुहर है।
ये जीत डबल इंजन सरकार की सुरक्षा-सुशासन एवं जन-कल्याणकारी नीतियों तथा समर्पित कार्यकर्ताओं के अथक…
— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) November 23, 2024
Significantly, the Chief Minister finished his post with the contentious ‘katenge to batenge‘ war cry that has been fiercely criticised by the opposition for being communal.
Voting for these bypolls have been hit by a wave of alleged electoral malpractice, including claims by Akhilesh Yadav that voters were threatened by police in Muzaffarnagar’s Kakrouli. District officials, however, claimed stones were pelted at cops trying to break up a fight between two groups.
READ | UP Official Counters Akhilesh Yadav’s Claims Of Voter Harassment
The Samajwadi Party also accused the police of “misbehaving” with voters in Meerapur. “They are being stopped from casting their votes, voting is getting affected. Police is misbehaving with voters and using lathis on women at booth number 318 of Mirapur assembly constituency in Muzaffarnagar. Election Commission should take cognisance and ensure fair voting,” the party said on X.
On that contentious note, SP Lok Sabha MP Dharmendra Yadav said, “We will win more than three seats. We would have won all nine seats but the way the police was used… they (the BJP) cheated.”
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