Lucknow, Sep 8 (IANS): The Samajwadi Party has much to celebrate on Friday. It retained its Ghosi Assembly seat in a direct fight with Dara Singh Chauhan of the BJP in the by-election.

The SP victory is significant since these by polls were positioned as a first face-off between the NDA and the INDIA.

Chauhan, a former minister from the BJP, had joined SP on the eve of Assembly polls in 2022 and had won back his Ghosi seat. He then quit SP in July this year and rejoined the BJP, confident of winning back his seat in the by elections.

The BJP was apparently over confident of Chauhan’s victory even though its entire leadership, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, campaigned vigorously in the by elections.

However, SP candidate Sudhakar Singh established a lead from the third round and the margin kept increasing with every round of counting. The campaign projected the by-election as a trailer of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

BJP’s ally, the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) leader Om Prakash Rajbhar had claimed that he would send the Yadav clan packing back to Etawah after this bypoll. However, it was Chauhan’s image as a "unreliable turncoat" that went against him and the voters opted for Sudhakar Singh who won his second election this time.

SP leader Shivpal Singh congratulated his party workers for the victory in Ghosi and said, "This is the beginning of the end for the BJP."