The ruling Samajwadi Party passed the litmus test with flying colour by retaining both the Jangipur and Bilari Assembly seats where bypolls results were declared on Friday.
The Election Commission said that in Jangipur Assembly seat of Ghazipur, SP candidate Kismatiya Devi defeated her nearest rival and BJP candidate Ramesh Singh by over 22,000 votes. Kismatiya Devi is the widow of former UP minister Kailash Yadav whose death necessitated the bypoll. She got 82,316 votes while the BJP nominee bagged 60,224 votes.
Congress candidate Shailesh, who is also the district chief of Congress, got 6852 votes. But surprisingly a lesser known political outfit Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party's candidate Dinesh Kumar Maurya recieved 8925 votes – over 2000 votes more than the Congress candidate.
Meanwhile in Bilari Assembly seat of Moradabad and Sambal districts, SP candidate Mohammad Faheem won by over 7000 votes against his nearest BJP rival Suresh Saini. While Ahmed, son of Haji Irfan whose death caused the bypolls, received 90,464 votes, Saini got 83,371 votes.
Congress candidate Shivpal Jatav, a Dalit, could muster only 3620 votes even as the dalit strength in that constituency is over 40,000.
An estimated 49.40 per cent of the 6.87 lakh electorate exercised their franchise in the by-elections on Monday last which was totally peaceful.
As it could be the last bypoll in the state ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls, the Bilari and Jangipur Assembly bypolls are being seen as a litmus test for BJP, SP and Congress.
However, the BSP which is a strong contender for the 2017 Assembly polls did not take part in the bye-elections.