ALLAHABAD:
Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel of the
Samajwadi Party (SP) has won
Phulpur bypoll by defeating BJP's Kaushalendra Singh Patel by a margin of 59, 460 votes. The seat was vacated by the former MP and the present deputy CM of the state Keshav Prasad Maurya.
Of the five assembly seats of Phulpur including Phaphmau, Soraon, Phulpur, Allahabad West and Allahabad North, SP won three assembly seats of this parliamentary constituency including Phaphamau, Soraon and Phulpur while BJP had been ahead in the two assembly seats i.e. Allahabad West and Allahabad North.
While SP's Nagendra secured a total of 3,42,922 votes including 126 postal votes, BJP’s candidate got a total of 2,83,462 votes including 279 postal votes. Atiq Ahmad, who contested as an independent candidate stood at the third place with a total of 48,094 votes.
Manish Mishra of the
Congress came fourth with 19,353 votes.
The counting for this bypoll began at this morning the Mundera Mandi. Counting for all the five assembly seats commenced by 8:00 am. SP was heading ahead in all the four assembly seats barring Allahabad West, where BJP took lead in almost all the 32 rounds of counting. After the final round of counting, BJP has been ahead in two of the assembly seats i.e Allahabad West and Allahabad North.
Following the official declaration of the results, SP and BSP supporters who were waiting outside the counting center all day celebrated their party's victory.
SP’s Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel while thanking BSP for the win said, “The win is important for both SP and BSP and said that this is a win for all the parties which is against the BJP, including the blessings of ‘bahenji’ (referring to Mayawati)”.
Among various reasons for BJP's failure to retain the seat, despite active campaigning undertaken by the chief minister and deputy chief minister in all the five assembly seats, poor voting percentage was one of the decisive factors.
As Allahabad North and Allahabad West which have always been a stronghold of the BJP recorded very poor turnout. Moreover, BJP bringing the candidate from Varanasi could have also been another reason for party’s defeat in the bypolls.
