Uttar Pradesh byelection results: BJP leads in seven assembly seats, Congress in one

LUCKNOW: Counting of votes for byelections to 11 assembly constituencies of Uttar Pradesh began at 8am on Thursday.
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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading in seven assembly seats, Samajwadi Party (SP) in two and Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) and the Congress in one each.
BJP is leading in Iglas, Manikpur, Balha, Lucknow Cantt, Govind Nagar, Ghosi and in Pratapgarh which is being contested by BJP alliance partner the Apna Dal.
The BJP, at present, seems to be losing two seats in the bypolls. The SP is leading in Rampur and Zaidpur.
The BSP is managing to hold on to its Jalalpur seat and has lost the lead it had in Iglas in the initial rounds. The party is trailing at the fourth position in Lucknow Cantt. and Rampur.
For the Congress, the bypoll has brought some hope. The party is leading in Gangoh and has managed to rank at the second position in Govind Nagar and Pratapgarh assembly seats.
Samajwadi Party's candidate from Rampur assembly constituency byelection, Tazeen Fatima is leading with 6,364 votes after the second round of counting.
Fatima, a Rajya Sabha MP, is the wife of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan.
Byelections to the Rampur assembly seat, considered an SP bastion, were necessitated after Azam Khan won the Lok Sabha elections from the constituency earlier this year.
Fatima is pitted against BJP's Bharat Bhooshan for the seat.