UP bypolls: NDA candidates ahead in seven seats, SP leads in two

The BJP and its ally RLD were leading in seven of the nine Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats where bypolls were held earlier this week while the Samajwadi Party was ahead in the remaining two, Election Commission trends showed on Saturday.

The BJP was in the lead in Kundarki, Khair, Ghaziabad, Phulpur, Katehari and Majhawan seats, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in Meerapur and the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Karhal and Sisamau.
In Meerapur, the RLD's Mithilesh Pal is leading by 19,785 votes against Samajwadi Party candidate Sumbul Rana.

The BJP's Ramveer Singh is leading in Kundarki by a margin of 98,537 votes while his party colleague Sanjeev Sharma is leading by 59,707 votes in Ghaziabad. Surender Diler is leading by a margin of 35,702 votes in the Khair (SC) seat.

In Phulpur, the BJP's Deepak Patel is leading by a margin of 8,233 votes and in Majhawan, party candidate Shuchismita Maurya is leading by 4,033 votes. In Katehari the BJP's Dharam Raj Nishad is leading by 7,201 votes.

In Karhal, the Samajwadi Party's Tej Pratap Yadav is leading by a margin of 19,581 votes, while his party colleague Naseem Solanki is ahead of her nearest rival in Sishamau by a margin of 8,564 votes.

In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the BJP won Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan and Khair seats and the SP secured Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal and Kundarki.

The RLD, which was an SP ally then, won the Meerapur seat. The party has since switched sides and is now part of the BJP-led NDA.

The Congress did not contest the bypolls and extended support to the SP, its INDIA bloc ally.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) contested all nine seats and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielded candidates from Ghaziabad, Kundarki and Meerapur.
The Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), led by Chandrashekhar Aazad, also contested all seats except Sisamau.

In the current assembly, the BJP has 251 MLAs and the SP 105.

BJP allies, such as Apna Dal (Sonelal), RLD, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party and NISHAD Party, also have members in the House. The Congress and the Jansatta Dal Loktantrik hold two seats each and the BSP one.