New Delhi, Mar 10 (IANS): Initial counting of votes cast in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections revealed that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is leading from the Gorakhpur Urban constituency, as per Election Commission sources.

The initial trends available at 9.30 a.m. were mostly from postal ballots.

This is Yogi Adityanath's first full fledged contest for an Assembly seat from his home turf, from where he had contested and won the Lok Sabha seat for multiple terms.

According to the ABP C-Voter exit poll, the ruling BJP is set to retain power in Uttar Pradesh with a tally of 236 seats.

The BJP will, however, return to power with a reduced margin in the 403-member state Assembly, with a loss of 89 seats after winning 325 seats in 2017, it had predicted.

Gorakhpur Urban seat had witnessed 53.30 per cent voting held on March 3.

The Chief Minister's opponents include Chandra Shekhar Aazad of Bhim Army contesting on the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), Chetana Pandey of Congress, Shubhawati Shukla of Samajwadi Party and Shamsuddin Khwaja of Bahujan Samaj Party.