The Bharatiya Janata Party’s dream of coming back to power in this politically-crucial State in 2017 suffered a major setback as the party lost its eight Assembly seats to the ruling Samajwadi Party and also faced a humiliating defeat in the Mainpuri parliamentary bypoll where its candidate lost by a huge margin of over 3.30 lakh votes in straight fight.
The BJP could retain only three Assembly seats where bypolls were held on Saturday. The biggest jolt for the party is the defeat of alliance partner, Apna Dal, in Rohaniya Assembly seat as it is a segment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency. Apna Dal candidate Krishna Patel lost to SP’s Mahendra Singh Patel by a margin of 11,449 votes.However, Apna Dal supporters along with their leader Anupriya Patel and some other candidates were staging demonstration near the counting centre, alleging tampering with the electronic voting machines. With the protest intensifying, a large contingent of police force has been deployed there to avert any untoward incident. The SP won Thakurdwara, Bijnor, Nighasan, Charkhari, Hamirpur, Sirathu, Balha and Rohania Assembly seats.
In Mainpuri lok Sabha constituency, SP candidate Tej Pratap Singh Yadav won by a margin of over 3.30 lakh votes against BJP candidate Prem Singh Shakya. The seat was vacated by SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.
BJP candidate Ashutosh Tandon retained the prestigious lucknow East Assembly seat. He defeated his nearest SP rival Juhi Singh by a margin of 26,459 votes. The lucknow East Assembly seat was vacated by Union minister Kalraj Mishra after winning the lok Sabha election from Deoria. All eyes were on its result as this seat is a segment of lucknow lok Sabha constituency represented by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.BJP candidate Vimla Batham also retained the Noida Assembly seat in Gautam Buddha Nagar district. She defeated Kajal Sharma of the SP by a margin of 58,555 votes.
After much ups and down, BJP candidate Rajiv Gumber retained the Saharanpur City seat, defeating SP candidate Sanjay Garg by a margin of 26,667 votes. Kaptan Singh of the Samajwadi Party made a major upset when he wrested the prestigious Charkhari Assembly seat in Mahoba district of the Bundelkhand region.
The seat was vacated by Union minister and former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Uma Bharti.