The Bharatiya Janata Party has lost two seats in the Legislative Council in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi, after holding on to them for a decade, NDTV reported on Saturday. The Samajwadi Party was able to secure both the seats – one reserved for teachers and the other for graduates.
While Samajwadi Party’s Ashutosh Sinha won from the Varanasi Division Graduates’ seat, his colleague Lal Bihari Yadav won from the teachers’ constituency. “It’s a big victory,” the channel quoted Yadav as saying. “I am happy with our result.”
Polling was held on Tuesday for 11 seats to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, which is the Upper House of the state legislature. Out of the 11 seats, five were reserved for graduates and six for teachers. The term of the members, known as MLCs, had expired on May 6. Teachers’ associations linked to the BJP, Samajwadi Party and the Congress contested the polls. A total of 199 candidates were in fray.
With results for two seats still pending on Saturday, the BJP had won four of the 11 seats, the Samajwadi Party three and Independent candidates won two.
BJP candidates Manvendra Pratap Singh won the Agra Division Graduates’ seat and Dinesh Goyal won the Meerut Graduates’ seat. In the Samajwadi Party, Maan Singh Yadav won from the Allahabad-Jhansi Division Graduates’ seat, the election office said, according to PTI.
The saffron party’s Umesh Dwivedi, Shrish Chandra Sharma and Hari Singh Dhillon won from Lucknow, Meerut and Bareilly-Moradabad teachers’ constituencies, respectively. Meanwhile, Independents Akash Agarwal and Dhruv Kumar Tripathi won from the Agra and Faizabad teachers’ constituencies, respectively.
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