This story is from October 25, 2019

UP bypolls: BJP+ retains eight seats in UP; SP gains two, keeps Rampur

The ruling BJP and ally Apna Dal bagged eight of 11seats that went to bypolls, while losing Zaidpur and failing to wrest any seat from the Opposition despite a campaign blitz by its top leaders. The poll outcome was a booster dose to Samajwadi Party, which managed to retain the Rampur seat and wrested Zaidpur from BJP, besides eking out a narrow victory in Mayawati’s bastion Jalalpur.
UP bypolls: BJP+ retains eight seats in UP; SP gains two, keeps Rampur
LUCKNOW: The ruling BJP and ally Apna Dal bagged eight of 11seats that went to bypolls, while losing Zaidpur and failing to wrest any seat from the Opposition despite a campaign blitz by its top leaders. The poll outcome was a booster dose to Samajwadi Party, which managed to retain the Rampur seat and wrested Zaidpur from BJP, besides eking out a narrow victory in Mayawati’s bastion Jalalpur.

The byelections proved a dampener for BSP, which not only lost Jalapur by a slender margin, but also drew a blank after choosing to contest bypolls after 12 years.
BJP, which won nine of 11 seats in 2017, managed to retain Gangoh (Saharanpur), Iglas (Aligarh), Lucknow Cantonment, Govindnagar (Kanpur), Manikpur (Chitrakoot), Balha (Bahraich) and Ghosi (Mau). BJP sailed through comfortably in Iglas, Lucknow Cantonment, Govind Nagar, Manikpur, and Balha seats.
Apna Dal drubs SP in Pratapgarh
In Balha, BJP’s Saroj Sonkar trounced Kiran Bharti of SP by a huge margin of 46,000 votes.
In Iglas, BJP’s Rajkumar Sahyogi defeated BSP’s Abhay Kumar by around 26,000 votes, while party candidate Surendra Maithani won Govindnagar, defeating Karishma Thakur of Congress by over 21,000 votes. BJP’s Anand Shukla won Manikpur seat by nearly 13,000 votes, defeating SP’s Nirbhay Singh Patel.
The Ghosi seat also witnessed a tight contest as BJP’s Vijay Rajbhar defeated SPbacked independent candidate Sudhakar Singh by a thin margin of around 2,000 votes. The seat saw a typical triangular fight with BSP also bagging more than 23% votes. In Pratapgarh, BJP ally Apna Dal’s candidate R K Pal routed SP’s Brijesh Singh by over 29,700 votes. The saffron party could not breach SP stronghold of Rampur, but put up a tough fight and dented the victory margin heavily.
SP’s Gaurav Kumar snatched Zaidpur by defeating BJP’s Ambrish Rawat by 4,165 votes.SP also won Jalapur as party’s Subhash Rai defeated won BSP’s Chhaya Verma by just 790 votes in a nail-biting finish. BJP candidate Rajesh Singh came third bagging around 27% votes. BSP failed to retain Jalalpur, considered aparty stronghold, and its candidates lost deposits in six out of the 11seats.
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