The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won five seats and the Samajwadi Party (SP) secured three in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections, with counting continuing for the remaining three constituencies on Wednesday, according to the latest declared results.
The BJP registered victories in the Agra and Meerut-Saharanpur Graduates' constituencies and the Lucknow, Meerut-Saharanpur and Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers' constituencies. The SP won the Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates' seat and the Varanasi and Agra-Aligarh Teachers' constituencies.
The latest results marked an improvement for the SP over its tally of three seats in the corresponding elections in 2020 only if it secured additional victories in the remaining constituencies. The BJP, which previously held six of the 11 seats, had won five in the current round of counting.
The elections to five Graduates' and six Teachers' constituencies were held on October 23, with 152 candidates in the fray. Counting began on Tuesday and continued into Wednesday under the preferential voting system.
๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ ๐ณ๐ถ๐ณ๐๐ต ๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐
BJP candidate Manvendra Pratap Singh, popularly known as Guruji, won the Agra-Aligarh Graduates' constituency, taking the party's tally to five.
In the Meerut-Saharanpur Graduates' constituency, sitting MLC Dinesh Kumar Goyal retained his seat, defeating SP candidate Pramod Singh Bhati.
The ruling party also retained three Teachers' constituencies. Umesh Dwivedi won from Lucknow, Shrichand Sharma secured the Meerut-Saharanpur seat and Hari Singh Dhillon emerged victorious from Bareilly-Moradabad.
Dhillon defeated SP nominee Danish Akhtar by 17,676 votes, securing 21,672 votes against his rival's 3,996.
The results gave the BJP five confirmed victories, while the party was also leading in the Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers' constituency.
๐ฆ๐ฃ ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ ๐๐น๐น๐ฎ๐ต๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ฎ๐ฑ-๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ป๐๐ถ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐
The Samajwadi Party registered its third victory after Man Singh Yadav defeated BJP candidate Ashok Rathore in the Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates' constituency by 27,663 votes.
The party also retained the Varanasi Teachers' constituency, where Lal Bihari Yadav defeated BJP nominee Pramod Kumar Mishra by approximately 4,900 votes.
In the Agra-Aligarh Teachers' constituency, SP candidate Akash Agrawal defeated BJP nominee Hari Kishore Tiwari. Agrawal had won the seat as an Independent in 2020 and retained it this time on the SP ticket.
The SP was also ahead in the Varanasi and Lucknow Graduates' constituencies in the latest available trends.
๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ต๐ฝ๐๐ฟ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐ป๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ถ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐
Counting in the Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers' constituency remained contentious, with BJP candidate Dhruv Tripathi leading Independent candidate Rajiv Yadav by 880 votes in the latest available trends.
Tripathi had secured 13,644 votes against Yadav's 12,764, while the SP's Sanjayan Tripathi was also in the contest.
Earlier, candidates had raised objections over alleged discrepancies in ballot figures. The counting process drew criticism from opposition representatives, who questioned the conduct of election officials.
In Agra, SP president Akhilesh Yadav alleged that party candidate Akash Agrawal had been assaulted and that the announcement of his victory had been delayed. He shared a video showing Agrawal wearing a torn kurta and urged the Election Commission to take cognisance of the alleged incident.
๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐ผ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฝ๐ผ๐น๐น ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐บ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒ
Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya acknowledged that the BJP had expected a better performance in the elections.
"These elections are decided by highly educated and qualified voters. The BJP has repeated its previous performance, but we expected to win more seats. We will examine why we fell short," Maurya said.
He added that the party would review the results and examine the constituencies where the opposition had secured victories.
The elections are being closely watched ahead of the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, although the Legislative Council's restricted electorate of registered graduates and teachers differs substantially from the electorate in Assembly elections.
The remaining three results โ Varanasi Graduates, Lucknow Graduates and Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers โ were awaited.