The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh on Friday won four of the five legislative council seats for which elections were held this week and one went to an Independent, dashing the Samajwadi Party's hope to stake claim to the Leader of the Opposition's post in the Upper House.
Polling on three graduates and two teachers constituencies of the council was held on January 30 and counting of votes by ballot began on Thursday evening and was completed on Friday.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) has nine members in the 100-member Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and needed one more to stake claim to the Leader of the Opposition's post.
With this win, the BJP's strength in the state's Upper House will rise to 79.
The BJP won in the Gorakhpur-Faizabad Division Graduates' constituency, the Allahabad-Jhansi Division Teachers' constituency, the Bareilly-Moradabad Division Graduates' constituency and the Kanpur Division Graduates' constituency.
The Kanpur Division Teachers' constituency saw independent candidate Raj Bahadur Singh Chandel emerging victorious.
On the BJP candidates' performance, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in a tweet in Hindi congratulated the winners.
"This victory of the BJP candidates in the elections to the Upper House of the state legislature is a symbol of immense public trust in the double engine government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he tweeted.
There were 63 candidates in the fray for the five seats and they included nominees of the BJP and the SP, and Independents. The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party did not contest the polls.
In the state's 403-member legislative assembly, the SP is the main opposition and its chief Akhilesh Yadav is the leader of the opposition.
Counting of votes for the council polls was held in Bareilly, Jhansi, Gorakhpur and Kanpur districts.
BJP's Devendra Pratap Singh defeated his nearest rival from the SP by a margin of 17,455 votes in the Gorakhpur-Faizabad Division Graduates' constituency.
In the Allahabad-Jhansi Division Teachers' constituency, BJP's Babulal Tiwari defeated his nearest rival Suresh Tripathi of the Shikshak Sangh by a margin of 1,403 votes.
The Bareilly-Moradabad Division Graduates' constituency saw BJP's Jaipal Singh Vyast retaining the seat, defeating his nearest rival from the SP Shivpratap Singh Yadav by a margin of 51,257 votes. Vyast got 92,771 votes.
BJP's Arun Pathak bagged 62,601 votes in the Kanpur Division Graduates' constituency, and defeated his nearest rival Kamlesh Yadav by 53,285 votes.
From the Kanpur Division Teachers' constituency, independent candidate Chandel got 5,229 votes, and defeated his nearest rival Hemraj Meena by a margin of 1,548 votes.
Forty-four candidates were in the fray for the three graduates constituencies in different districts and 19 for the two teachers constituencies.
In the 100-member council, the BSP, Apna Dal (Sonelal), Nishad Party, Jansatta Dal Loktantrik have one seat each in the council.
The Teachers' group has two seats, the Independent group two seats, while there are two Independents in the House. One seat is vacant.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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