Samajwadi Party sweeps Uttar Pradesh Council Elections, BJP scores zero

LUCKNOW: The Samajwadi Party swept the Uttar Pradesh legislative council elections, which also saw mafia don Brijesh Singh defeating the ruling party’s nominee in Varanasi. Ramlali, wife of another mafia-turned politician Vijay Mishra, also won from Mirzapur-Sonebhadra seat.

The BJP failed to open its account in this round and in many seats was not even the runner up. The party also had to face the humiliation of several of its candidates backing out at the last minute or supporting the SP at a few seats.

Of the 36 legislative council seats that went to polls, the SP romped home with 31. The Bahujan Samaj Party performed poorly, managing just two seats.

Independents won two and the Congress got the Rae Bareli seat.

Uttar Pradesh has a bicameral assembly, with directly elected MLAs in the Vidhan Sabha and indirectly elected MLCs in the Vidhan Parishad.

Several of “Team Akhilesh Yadav” members made their debut to the House with two — Anand Bhadouria and Sunil Singh Yadav — being elected unopposed from Sitapur and Lucknow-Unnao. Akhilesh loyalists Santosh Yadav Sunny and Pushpraj Jain won from Basti and Etawah, respectively.

Arvind Yadav, a family member of SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, was declared unopposed from the Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri seat.

Though the SP swept the polls, it will likely ponder over the performance in Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Varanasi, Muzzafarnagar and Rae Bareli.