UP Election Results 2017: BJP leads in Ghaziabad, Dadri, all three constituencies in Varanasi

Call it the Narendra Modi wave or ‘Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas’, the Bharatiya Janata Party engine is chugging ahead in Uttar Pradesh and there is no stopping it. With a secure lead on 308 seats out of the 403-seat Assembly, the saffron party has left behind its opponents with a margin that’s not easy to touch. Come to talk of the victory, perhaps Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to Varanasi did propel the BJP’s chances in the state, whatever the Opposition and some of his own allies may have called it. Earlier, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan had called Modi a Nukkad neta while a Bharatiya Janata Party ally and a Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha  said the roadshow was uncalled for and did not suit the prime minister’s position. What this did was it propelled Varanasi at the  centerstage of the UP battle and made it one of the most watched districts and the BJP and its allies are poised to sweep all the five assembly segments in the district. As per trends available till noon, the Bharatiya Janata Party is leading by a comfortable margin in all the three urban seats it had won in 2012 — Varanasi Cantt, Varanasi South and Varanasi North. The party is also heading towards victory in the predominantly rural Rohaniya, a seat where the party had polled less than 10 per cent votes five years ago. The party candidate here has established a comfortable lead of over 10,000 votes. In Pindra, which falls under Machhlishahr Lok Sabha seat, the party has established a lead of more than 15,000 votes. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s allies Apna Dal (Soney Lal) and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party too have respectively established handsome leads in Sevapuri, which falls under Varanasi, and Ajagara, which comes under Chandauli. Apart from Amethi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Rahul Gandhi and a perceived Gandhi bastion,  Etawa, a traditional Yadav bastion, Ghaziabad etc. Here is a list of key constituencies in the most closely watched districts and how the candidates are performing there.