Lucknow, Nov 10 (Inditop.com) The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh Tuesday emerged as the clear winner in by-elections to 11 assembly constituencies while its sworn political adversary Samajwadi Party (SP) suffered a rout.
Even SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Dimple faced a devastating defeat at the hands of Congress nominee Raj Babbar from the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat. The actor-turned-politician won by a whopping margin of over 85,000 votes.
As the results of Saturday’s by-elections came out, the BSP bagged eight assembly seats, doubling its earlier hold over four of these. On the other hand, SP lost its hold on each of the three seats that were in its kitty earlier.
Springing a surprise in Lucknow (West), the Congress defeated its nearest rival from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by a close margin of 2,178 votes. Congress veteran Shyam Kishore Shukla, who had last contested an election in 1985, romped home by defeating former prime minister and BJP stalwart Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s nominee Amit Puri.
Equally surprising were the giant strides of two independents in Kolasala (Varanasi) and Jhansi, where they demolished the might of all political parties. In Kolasala, independent Ajay Rai overcame BSP’s Jai Prakash Misra by a margin of 8,837 votes.
In Jhansi, Brijendra Kumar Vyas (independent) was locked in a close fight with BSP’s Kailash Sahu.
Raj Babbar wrested the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat from SP, whose star leader and party chief Mulayam Singh’s son Akhilesh had won the election from here only in May. Since he had bagged two seats, he vacated this seat, necessitating the by-poll in which the party field his wife Dimple Yadav.
Among the assembly seats, the ruling BSP bagged Isauli (Sultanpur), where its nominee Chandra Bhadra Singh defeated his nearest rival from the Congress by 49,377 votes.
In Hainsar Bazar (Sant Kabir Nagar), BSP’s Dashrath Prasad Chauhan humbled Neel Mani of the Congress by 8,797 votes.
Once again, in Padrauna (Kushinagar) it was Congress nominee Rani Mohini Devi who suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of BSP strongman Swami Prasad Maurya by a whopping margin of 53,024 votes.
The Puwayan (Shahjahanpur) seat also went to the ruling party, whose Dhirendra Prasad defeated Chet Ram of the Congress by nearly 30,000 votes.
The Rari (Jaunpur) seat also fell to the BSP, whose nominee Rajdeo Singh defeated SP’s Om Prakash Dube by 13,617 votes.
Similarly, the Etawah city seat was also bagged by BSP, whose Mahendra Singh Rajput crushed Vimal Singh Bhadauria of the SP by a margin of 32,827 votes.
The neighbouring Bhartana (Etawah) seat too fell to Shiv Prasad Yadav of the ruling BSP, who defeated SP’s Pradeep Kumar Yadav by 16,778 votes.
The BSP also succeeded in retaining its hold over the Lalitpur seat where ruling party nominee Suman Devi Kushwaha worsted Chandrabhushan Singh of SP by 14,887 votes.
