Involved in a prestige battle with the BJP in Uttar Pradesh bypolls, the Samajwadi Party on Thursday managed to defend its bastions as it maintained a comfortable lead in Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency, while nominees of the SP and its ally RLD were ahead in the Rampur Sadar and Khatauli seats respectively.
While Dimple Yadav, wife of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, led by 1.88 lakh votes in Mainpuri against her nearest rival BJP candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya, RLD’s Madan Bhaiya led by a margin of over 12,000 votes against BJP’s Rajkumari Saini.
However, Samajwadi Party candidate Asim Raja, considered a close confidante of jailed SP leader Azam Khan, was trailing Rampur Sadar against the BJP's Akash Saxena by a margin of over 3,000 votes.
The Mainpuri parliamentary constituency, which fell vacant after the death of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, had registered 54.01 per cent voting. The Khatauli assembly segment had recorded 56.46 per cent polling on December 5 while Rampur Sadar had seen a low 33 per cent.
Bypoll in Rampur Sadar and Khatauli were necessitated due to the disqualification of SP MLA Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini following their conviction by separate courts in different matters.
Following defeats in Azamgarh and the Rampur Lok Sabha bypoll, considered the SP's bastions, the Mainpuri parliamentary and the Rampur and Khatauli assembly by-elections have become important for the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and his ally RLD.
Though the outcome of the bypolls would not make much difference to the government at the Centre as well as in Uttar Pradesh as the BJP has a comfortable majority at both the places, a win would give psychological advantage to the winner in the run-up to the 2024 general election.
Meanwhile, in Bihar's Kurhani, BJP candidate Kedar Prasad Gupta won the Assembly segment by 3,645 votes, the Election Commission announced. Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) had pitted Manoj Singh Kushwaha against Gupta.
The by-poll was necessitated by the disqualification of sitting RJD MLA Anil Kumar Sahani. Gupta had lost to Sahani by less than 700 votes in the 2020 assembly polls which BJP and JD(U) had fought in an alliance. Now, the JD(U) is a part of 'Mahagathbandhan' comprising RJD, Congress and the Left parties.
In Odisha's Padampur, ruling BJD candidate Barsha Singh Bariha was leading by a comfortable margin of over 27,000 votes over Pradip Purohit, her nearest rival of the BJP, after the 15th round of counting.
In Bhanupratappur Assembly bypoll in Chhattisgarh, Congress candidate Savitri Mandavi was leading by a margin of more than 14,000 votes over her nearest rival, Brahmanand Netam of the BJP.
