UP MLC Results: BJP Holds Its Ground As SP Narrows The Gap Ahead Of Assembly Elections

The BJP retained four seats and the Samajwadi Party won two in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections, with counting continuing for five constituencies on Wednesday. Allegations of irregularities prompted an SP boycott in Gorakhpur, while a clash between BJP and SP supporters disrupted proceedings in Agra.

The BJP secured both Meerut seats and the teachers’ constituencies in Bareilly-Moradabad and Lucknow. The SP won the Varanasi and Agra teachers’ seats.

The elections cover five graduates’ and six teachers’ constituencies, with 152 candidates contesting. Turnout stood at 55.24% among 14,81,310 eligible voters.

BJP Holds Four Seats; SP Wins In Varanasi And Agra

BJP candidates Dinesh Kumar Goyal and Shrichand Sharma retained the Meerut graduates’ and teachers’ seats, respectively. District Information Officer Sumit Yadav confirmed that both had received their victory certificates.

Hari Singh Dhillon retained the Bareilly-Moradabad teachers’ constituency, while Umesh Dwivedi won another term from the Lucknow teachers’ seat, Hindustan Times reported.

SP candidate Lal Bihari Yadav secured a second consecutive term from the Varanasi teachers’ constituency. In Agra, the party’s Akash Agrawal defeated BJP candidate Hari Kishore Tiwari. Agrawal had won the seat as an Independent in 2020.

The SP was also ahead in the Varanasi, Lucknow and Allahabad-Jhansi graduates’ constituencies. In Varanasi, its candidate Ashutosh Sinha led by about 2,900 votes after the second round.

The BJP was leading in the Agra graduates’ and Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers’ constituencies.

Gorakhpur Candidates Question Counting

SP candidate Sanjayan Tripathi boycotted counting for the Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers’ seat, alleging that the process became irregular after the third round.

“Everything was going fine until the third round of counting,” he said.

Tripathi claimed that Independent candidate Rajeev Yadav had been ahead by about 450 votes before the counting began favouring the BJP candidate.

“Suddenly, the entire trend changed, and it felt like everything was pre-decided from before, so we boycotted the counting,” he said.

Tripathi and Yadav accused administrative officials and the election observer of favouring the BJP candidate. Their supporters protested after 1,600 votes were counted in the BJP candidate’s favour during the third round. Police and officials at the venue held talks with protesters to ease tensions.

A separate confrontation between BJP and SP supporters was reported during counting in Agra.

Results Come Ahead Of 2027 Assembly Polls

Counting began at 8 am on Tuesday at centres in Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Jhansi, Bareilly and Gorakhpur. Sorting and bundling ballot papers before counting under the single transferable vote system prolonged the process.

Polling took place on Friday, months before Uttar Pradesh’s Assembly elections, due in early 2027.

In the previous elections to these 11 Council seats in 2020, the BJP won six, the SP three and Independents two. The SP’s latest gains include Agra, which Agrawal previously held as an Independent.

The Council contest follows the BJP’s losses in Uttar Pradesh during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress-SP alliance won 43 of the state’s 80 parliamentary seats with a combined vote share of 43.52%, while the BJP’s tally fell from 62 in 2019 to 33.

Graduates And Teachers Elect These Council Members

The constituencies voting in this round comprise the Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut and Allahabad-Jhansi graduates’ seats, alongside teachers’ seats in Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Bareilly-Moradabad and Gorakhpur-Faizabad.

Unlike Assembly elections, voting in these constituencies is restricted to registered electors who meet the prescribed graduate or teaching qualifications. Voters rank candidates in order of preference.

Legislative Council members serve six-year terms, with one-third retiring every two years.