SP loses 2 out of 3 seats in bypolls

Lucknow: In an ominous sign to the ruling Samajwadi Party just a year before next state polls, the BJP and Congress snatched one seat each from it out of the three constituencies that went to bypoll on Feb ruary 13.
While Congress won crucial Deoband, the seat of renowned Islamic seminary, BJP emerged victorious in Muzaffarnagar. The only saving grace for SP was Bikapur, where its candidate defeated RLD.All these three seats were with the SP in 2012. Bahujan Samaj Party stayed away from these bypolls.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Kapil Dev Agarwal won the by-election in the Muzaffarnagar constituency where communal riots had taken place in 2013.
The BJP, in its poll campaign, had lapped up the court orders as the vindication of their earlier claims that innocents were being booked in riot cases to appease the Muslims which is seen as a traditional vote bank of the SP.
Agarwal was elected by a margin of over 6,000 votes, defeating Gaurav Swaroop Bansal, fielded by SP after his father, former minister Chittarajan Swaroop passsed away. In 2012, the BJP candidate had lost by a margin of over 15,000 votes.
In Deoband, Congress's Mavia Ali, defeated his nearest rival SP's Meena Rana, wife of late minister Rajendra Singh Rana of SP by 3,559 votes. The BJP, which had fileded former RSS pracharak Rampal Singh Pundhir, stood third. Deoband emerged as the biggest upset for the SP as it has secured more than 34% the total votes polled in 2012. Ali in fact was with SP before bypolls and was a ticket claimant but defected when denied.
The SP however managed to retain the Bikapur assembly seat in Faizabad where party candidate Anand Sen, son of the party veteran Mitasen Yadav who passed away a few month ago, secured a win defeating Rashtriya Lok Dal's (RLD's) Munna Singh Chauhan by a margin of 6,440 votes. The BJP stood third with 11893 votes. AIMIM's dalit candidate Pradeep Kori finished fourth with 11,857 votes.