Daijiworld Media Network - Lucknow

Lucknow, Oct 29: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won six of the 11 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council seats contested in the elections, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) has secured four. Counting for the remaining Varanasi graduates’ constituency continued into the third day, with SP candidate Ashutosh Sinha maintaining a substantial lead over BJP candidate Kedar Nath Singh.

The results come ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled for 2027, offering an early indication of the performance of the BJP and SP in the graduates’ and teachers’ constituencies. However, the electorate in these constituencies differs from that of Assembly elections, and the results do not necessarily predict the outcome of next year’s contest.

In the Varanasi graduates’ constituency, Sinha’s lead widened with each round of counting. At the end of the eighth round of first-preference vote counting, he had secured 47,450 votes against Singh’s 31,189, leading by 16,261 votes. After the ninth round, Sinha’s tally increased to 50,462, while Singh had received 33,472 votes, taking the margin to 16,990.

After the sixth round, Sinha had secured 35,086 votes against Singh’s 23,253, while the cumulative totals after five rounds stood at 28,863 and 19,373, respectively.

Counting was being conducted at 14 counters, with first-preference ballots counted in batches of 1,000. The counting process remained underway on the third day, with Sinha continuing to hold the lead.

Among the declared winners, BJP candidate Dinesh Kumar Goyal won the Meerut graduates’ constituency, Umesh Dwivedi secured the Lucknow teachers’ seat, Dr Manvendra Pratap Singh won the Agra graduates’ constituency, Shrichand Sharma won the Meerut teachers’ constituency, and Dr Hari Singh Dhillon secured the Bareilly-Moradabad teachers’ seat.

The SP’s declared winners include Lal Bihari Yadav from the Varanasi teachers’ constituency, Dr Akash Agrawal from the Agra teachers’ constituency and Dr Man Singh Yadav from the Allahabad-Jhansi graduates’ constituency.

With six seats won by the BJP and four by the SP, the outcome of the Varanasi graduates’ constituency remains crucial to the final tally. While the BJP has secured more declared victories, the SP’s lead in Varanasi could add to its tally as the two parties prepare for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.