UP MLC polls: SP wrests Varanasi, Allahabad-Jhansi seats from BJP; saffron party wins Agra

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party bagged two seats and the ruling BJP one seat in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council election to the Graduates’ constituencies, while counting of votes was continuing on two remaining seats. BJP candidate Manvendra Pratap Singh won the Agra Division Graduates’ seat, while SP’s Ashutosh Sinha won Varanasi Division Graduates’ seat and Maan Singh Yadav won from the Allahabad-Jhansi Division Graduates’ seat, election office said. While Samajwadi Party has wrested Varanasi and Allahabad-Jhansi seats from the BJP, it lost the Agra seat to BJP. Counting of votes for the Meerut and Lucknow Graduates’ seat was continuing and the results are expected late in the night, state’s Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Kumar Shukla said. On Friday, the results for six teachers’ constituency seats were declared of which three were taken by BJP, one by Samajwadi Party and two by independents. BJP’s Umesh Dwivedi, Shrishchandra Sharma and Hari Singh Dhillon were declared winners from Lucknow, Meerut and Bareilly-Moradabad teachers’ constituencies respectively. SP candidates Lal Bihari Yadav won from Varanasi teachers’ constituency and independents Akash Agarwal and Dhruv Kumar Tripathi won from Agra and Faizabad teachers’ constituencies respectively. Polling was held on Tuesday for 11 seats — five reserved for graduates and six for teachers. BJP, SP, Congress and teachers’ associations contested the polls, with 199 candidates in the fray. The term of office of the MLCs from these constituencies had expired on 6 May.