BJP gains in UP Vidhan Parishad polls

The BJP, earlier, had not put up candidates in these elections but this time, the saffron party has fielded candidates

Lucknow: BJP is emerging as a major gainer in the elections to 11 seats of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council which began a day ago and is still underway amid tight security on Friday.

The BJP, earlier, had not put up candidates in these elections but this time, the saffron party has fielded candidates.

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In these 11 seats, there are five block graduate and six section teacher seats, on which BJP, Samajwadi Party and Congress have fielded candidates.

Umesh Dwivedi of BJP won the Lucknow Teachers seat. He got a total of 7,065 votes, while second place was held by Independent candidate Dr Mahendra Nath Rai.

Out of total 17,985 votes, Umesh Dwivedi got 7,065 votes after counting 17,077 valid votes. Mahendra Nath Rai got 3,818 votes. Samajwadi Party candidate Uma Shankar got 2,238 first preference votes.

The counting of votes for the graduate constituency is still underway.

The Uttar Pradesh Secondary Teachers Association (Sharma faction) candidate Dhruv Kumar Tripathi has scored a hat-trick win in the Gorakhpur-Faizabad Block Teacher Constituency in the 2020 elections.

He becomes the first candidate to win this seat three times in a row. He defeated his nearest rival Ajay Singh by 1,008 votes. Dhruv got 10,227 votes while Ajay Singh got 9,219 votes.

The Meerut division Teachers seat has thrown one of the biggest shockers of the season.

BJP candidate Shrichand Sharma got the highest 8,222 votes after counting all the preference votes. His nearest rival and eight-time Legislative Council member Om Prakash Sharma was defeated with just 3,305 votes.

Om Prakash Sharma has held the seats for 48 years and his defeat has left many shocked.

The voting percentage in teachers’ constituencies was relatively better than that in the five graduates’ constituencies, with the highest turnout of 73.94 per cent witnessed in Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers constituency; followed by 73.48 per cent in Bareilly-Moradabad; 70.78 in Agra; and 68.83 in Varanasi Teachers’ seat.

At 33.93 per cent, the Varanasi division graduates’ constituency reported the lowest voter turnout, followed by Agra at 41.56 per cent.

A total of 199 candidates contested the 11 Vidhan Parishad seats in UP MLC Elections.

Of the six MLC seats in the teachers’ quota, BJP fielded candidates on four seats while Samajwadi Party and Sharma faction fielded candidates on all six seats.

The tenure of the members in these seats was completed in May this year, but the elections could not be held due to the Coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown.

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