BJP bags five of 10 MLC seats, SP wins Varanasi

LUCKNOW: After registering an impressive win in recently concluded bypolls, BJP continued its winning streak by bagging five of ten declared seats in MLC elections for teachers and graduate constituencies on Saturday.
The party was ahead in one seat. Samajwadi Party has won three and Independents two.
The five seats won by BJP candidates include Bareilly-Moradabad, Meerut, Lucknow divisions of teacher constituencies and Agra seat of the graduate constituency.The party also registered win on Meerut division graduate seat, while it was leading on Lucknow graduate seat.
An Election Commission official said, winning candidates of graduate constituencies were Mavendra Pratap Singh, who won Agra division graduate seat with 31,062 votes. His nearest rival, Asim Yadav, mustered 27, 244 votes. Similarly, Samajwadi Party candidate Maan Singh Yadav won Allahabad-Jhansi division of graduate constituency with 23,093 votes, while his nearest competitor Yagdutt Sharma of BJP lost by 4,333 votes.
In Varanasi too, Samajwadi Party candidate Ashutosh Sinha bagged the seat, polling 25,351 votes, while his BJP rival, Kedarnath Singh, got 22,685 votes.
A total of 114 candidates were in the fray in five seats of the graduate constituency in Lucknow, Agra, Varanasi, Meerut and Allahabad-Jhansi divisions.
Speaking to TOI, Yogeshwar Ram Mishra, additional chief election commissioner, said, “Counting at Lucknow division is still on. In Lucknow division graduate seat, BJP candidate Awanish Kumar Singh was leading by 2,746 votes over his nearest competitor Kanti Singh — sitting MLC graduate — in the eighth round. She was leading till the sixth round.”
On Saturday, Bharatiya Janata Party won three teacher seats of Lucknow, Meerut, Bareilly-Moradabad division by a good margin, while two other seats of teacher Agra and Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers went to independent candidates.
This is the first time, candidates for graduate and teachers constituencies have contested with a party affiliation.