By-Election Results: Gorakhpur is the seat that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held for five terms.
New Delhi: The BJP is leading in early trends in by-elections for Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur parliament seat, but in Phulpur the Samajwadi Party has shot ahead. Both seats were held by the BJP and today's by-election is a prestige battle for the ruling party. Regional heavyweights and arch rivals Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party have pooled resources to take on the BJP in what is seen as an experiment to test the ground for a larger alliance in the 2019 national election. Votes are also being counted for one parliament and two assembly seats in Bihar.
Here is your 10-point cheatsheet to the Uttar Pradesh and Bihar bypoll results:
- In early rounds, veteran politician Lalu Yadav's RJD is leading in Bihar's Araria Lok Sabha seat and Jahanabad assembly seat; it held both. The BJP is leading in Bhabua, vacated by death of its legislator last year. The by-elections are seen as a referendum on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision last September to dump Lalu Yadav and the Congress to partner with the BJP.
- UP's Gorakhpur is the seat that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held 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.
- Yogi Adityanath campaigned hard in both constituencies and described the by-elections as a dress rehearsal for the general election next year. "Our victory margins will be as big as in 2014," he told NDTV. There was 47 per cent polling in Gorakhpur last week, and 38 per cent in Phulpur.
- In both seats, the Samajwadi Party is the BJP's main challenger, with the BSP offering support in a rare deal that includes the Samajwadi Party's support for the BSP in Rajya Sabha elections in UP later this month. "If we win, there will be a bigger alliance," promised Pravin Nishad, fielded by the Samajwadi Party in Gorakhpur.
- Mayawati, seen as the Dalit powerhouse in the state, has not fielded a candidate. Her workers have asked the sizeable Dalit community to vote for the Samajwadi candidates, though she has not committed to a bigger partnership, waiting to see how the experiment works. The present arrangement, she has insisted, is an "agreement" not an "alliance."
- Both the Samajwadi Party and the BSP attended a dinner party hosted by the Congress' Sonia Gandhi in Delhi last night, seen as an attempt to consolidate opposition unity ahead of the 2019 national election. In the UP by-elections however, the Congress has fielded its own candidates.
- 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 seen to test his leadership.
- This is also the first big test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after he swapped partners in September last year. The RJD has accused Mr Kumar of backstabbing voters who chose the Grand Alliance of the RJD, Nitush Kumar's Janata Dal (United) and the Congress in 2015. Nitish Kumar defended his decision while campaigning, stating that he allied with the BJP in the interest of the state.
- In Gorakhpur, the BJP's Upendra Dutt Shukla takes on Pravin Nishad, backed by the Samajwadi Party, while in Phulpur, once represented by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, it is Kaushalendra Patel of the BJP versus Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel of the Samajwadi Party.
- In Bihar, the Araria seat fell vacant due to the death of RJD strongman Mohd Taslimuddin, who wrested the seat from the BJP's Pradip Singh in 2014. Pradip Singh is contesting this time and takes on Mohd Taslimuddin's son Sarfaraz Alam. The Jahanabad assembly seat too was vacated by the death of the RJD's sitting legislator.
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