BJP Confronts Big Setback, Trails In Key UP And Bihar Elections: 10 Facts

For Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats,Samajwadi Party and BSP have teamed up. In Bihar, the RJD is fighting to retain the Araria Lok Sabha seat.

All India | Reported by Manish Kumar, Edited by Aloke Tikku | Updated: March 14, 2018 14:41 IST

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BJP Confronts Big Setback, Trails In Key UP And Bihar Elections: 10 Facts

By-election results: Gorakhpur is the seat that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held for five terms

New Delhi: Workers of the Samajwadi Party started celebrating as its candidates established significant leads over the ruling BJP in the by-elections for Gorakhpur and Phulpur seats in Uttar Pradesh. In the prestigious parliamentary seat of Gorakhpur, vacated by the BJP's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath last year, the party is ahead by nearly 20,000 votes. In Phulpur, vacated by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya, the SP is leading by over 27,500 votes. Today's by-election is a prestige battle for the ruling party, which took on the combined might of regional heavyweights and arch-rivals Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's BSP in an experiment seen to test a bigger alliance for the 2019 national election.

Here is your 10-point cheatsheet to the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar bypoll results:

In by-elections in Bihar, the BJP and Lalu Yadav's RJD are locked in a close contest, with the RJD currently ahead by over 21,000 votes in Araria, a parliament seat it holds. The party is also leading in the Jahanabad assembly seat, while the BJP is leading in Bhabua, both parties holding.
In Gorakhpur, a top official barred the media from entering the area where votes are being counted, in what is now a full blown political controversy. Opposition lawmakers protested in Parliament against the unusual ban by District Magistrate Rajeev Rautela. In Lucknow, the state assembly was adjourned for 10 minutes as Samajwadi Party lawmakers held protests.
Mr Rautela told reporters, "You can shoot as much as you want. The Election Commission says the media is not allowed where EVMs are in circulation...The counting is being scrutinized minutely by the observers. I can bring you the sheets as soon as they are signed by them."
Yogi Adityanath held the Gorakhpur seat for five terms. He vacated it last year after becoming chief minister, following the BJP's sweep of the 2017 assembly elections, capturing 325 of the 403 assembly seat along with allies. Phulpur was vacated by his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya.
A year after the BJP's big win, the by-elections were seen as a test of Yogi Adityanath's popularity and the Chief Minister was the face of the BJP's campaign, addressing multiple public rallies. He has described the by-elections as a dress rehearsal for the general election next year. "Our victory margins will be as big as in 2014," the chief minister had told NDTV.
Regional heavyweights and arch-rivals Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party have pooled resources to take on the BJP in Gorakhpur and Phulpur in what is seen as an experiment to test the ground for a larger alliance in the 2019 national election.
In both seats, the Samajwadi Party fielded candidates, with the BSP offering support in a rare deal that includes SP support for the BSP in Rajya Sabha elections in UP later this month. Dalit powerhouse Mayawati has not committed to a bigger partnership, waiting to see how the experiment works.
As the leads showed SP ahead in both seats, SP lawmaker Dharmendra Yadav, a relative of Akhilesh Yadav, said, "We hope this alliance will continue in 2019 and I will request the leadership to continue this alliance".
The Bihar by-elections are seen as a referendum on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision last July to dump Lalu Yadav and the Congress to partner with the BJP. The RJD has accused Mr Kumar of backstabbing voters who chose the Grand Alliance of the RJD, Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) and the Congress in 2015. Nitish Kumar defended his decision in public speeches stating that he allied with the BJP in the interest of the state.
With Lalu Yadav in jail in a corruption case, his son Tejashwi Yadav fronted the RJD's campaign in Bihar and these by-elections are also seen to test his leadership.

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