Diwali seems to have arrived a few days early for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh and other states where the votes of bypolls and assembly elections were counted on Tuesday.
The BJP drubbed the divided opposition in Uttar Pradesh by winning six of the seven Assembly seats where bypolls were held while Samajwadi Party managed to retain one seat.
The BJP won these six seats with a bigger margin compared to the 2017 Assembly elections.
The four-cornered contest in the bypolls benefited the BJP as candidates of all the three opposition parties — Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress — polled a sizable number of votes, thus paving the way for the victory of the ruling BJP.
With this win, the total strength of the BJP in the UP Assembly has gone up to 310 in the 403-member House. The SP tally has increased to 49.
The BJP retained all the seats it had won in 2017 while the SP retained the Malhani seat in Jaunpur district.
The Congress and the BSP had fielded candidates on all the seven seats but they drew a blank.
However, a minor consolation for the Congress was in Bangarmau where its candidate finished second.
The narrative of outrage over the Hathras incident and the anti-incumbency factor crafted by the opposition parties in UP failed to make any impact on the electoral fortunes of the BJP in the state.
According to the Election Commission, the BJP candidates won the Bulandshahr, Tundla, Ghatampur, Deoria, Naugawan Sadat and Bangarmau seats while the SP won the Malhani seat.
As per the Election Commission figures, the BJP polled 36.7 percent votes in the bypolls, followed by 23.6 percent by SP, 19 percent by BSP, 7.5 percent by Congress and 11.4 percent by others.
The bypolls witnessed keen contests in Malhani and Naugawan Sadat constituencies where the leads changed frequently.
Javed Abbas of SP, was leading in the initial rounds of counting in Naugawan Sadat constituency in Amroha. Later, Sangeeta established a lead and won the election by a margin of 15,077 votes. Sangeeta is the widow of former UP minister and cricketer Chetan Chauhan, who recently succumbed to novel coronavirus, necessitating the bypoll.
In Bulandshahr, BJP’s Usha Sirohi defeated her nearest BSP rival Haji Yunus by a margin of 21,701 votes while in Tundla, BJP’s Prempal Singh Dhangar defeated SP’s Maharaj Singh Dhangar by 17,683 votes.
In Bangarmau constituency, BJP candidate Shrikant Katiyar defeated Arti Bajpai of the Congress by a margin of 31,398 votes and in Ghatampur, BJP candidate Upendra Nath Paswan defeated Dr Kripa Shanker of Congress by over 23,820 votes.
In Deoria constituency, BJP candidate Dr Satya Prakash Mani Tripathi trounced his nearest SP candidate Brahmashankar Tripathi by 20,089 votes while SP candidate Lucky Yadav defeated his nearest independent candidate and former MP Dhananjay Singh by 4,623 votes.
The bypolls were necessitated after the deaths of sitting MLAs of Bulandshahr, Deoria, Malhani, Naugawan Sadat and Ghatampur.
The Tundla seat fell vacant after its MLA, SP Singh Baghel, was elected to the Lok Sabha, while the Bangarmau seat in Unnao fell vacant after the conviction of BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar in a rape case.
Barring Malhani, the other six seats were held by BJP.
BJP leaders said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s dominance was the reason why the party was maintaining its 2017 form.
Party spokesperson Chandra Mohan said; “There was no anti-incumbency against us. Yogi Adityanath has proved that we are working for the welfare of the poor and for the development of the state. His government’s performance has been vindicated.”
