Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party has taken both Varanasi seats in the Uttar Pradesh legislative council, in the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and added Lucknow Graduates' to its tally. The final results, declared on Thursday afternoon after counting in Varanasi ran past 50 hours, give the BJP six of the 11 seats and the SP five.
The BJP held six seats before the election and the SP three, with independents holding two. The SP's gain of two is the story of this round, coming months before assembly polls in the state.
The winning margins were emphatic in places. SP's Ashutosh Sinha polled 55,046 votes in Varanasi Graduates'. Kanti Singh took Lucknow Graduates' with 56,905 votes against BJP's Avneesh Kumar Singh on 39,778. Man Singh Yadav retained Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates' for the SP with 60,358 votes, against BJP's Ashok Kumar Rathore on 32,695.
The BJP's six: Dinesh Kumar Goyal in Meerut Graduates' with 24,929 votes, Dr Manvendra Pratap Singh in Agra Graduates' with 42,743, Umesh Dwivedi in Lucknow Teachers' with 13,179, Shrichand Sharma in Meerut Teachers' with 18,099, Dr Hari Singh Dhillon in Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers' with 21,672, and Dhruv Kumar Tripathi in Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers' with 16,790.
Tripathi's was the closest of the lot, a margin of 307 votes over independent Rajeev Yadav, who got 14,580. It is his fourth consecutive term in the council.
The SP also took Varanasi Teachers', where Lal Bihari Yadav polled 11,612 against BJP's Dr Pramod Kumar Mishra on 6,597, and Agra Teachers', where Dr Akash Agrawal won with 14,046.
On aggregate votes, the SP edged ahead of the BJP across the 11 seats, by 2,64,502 to 2,61,379. Turnout was 55.54%, with 6,58,542 of 14,81,310 electors voting on October 23.
Across the 28 legislative council seats contested in four states, the BJP won 13, the Congress one, and Jan Suraaj opened its account in Bihar.
In the 100-member Uttar Pradesh council, the BJP now holds 79 seats and the SP 10. Counting began on October 27 and stretched over two days, with BJP workers staging sit-ins outside the Varanasi counting centre and alleging irregularities.