SP decisively leading in Gorakhpur, Phulpur bypolls

In what has come as a huge setback for the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party is decisively leading in both the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls.

In Gorakhpur, SP's Praveen Kumar Nishad is leading by 22,954 votes with 3, 77,146 votes while BJP's Upendra Dutt Shukla is second with 3, 54,192 votes after 25th round of counting.

In Phulpur, SP's Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel is leading by 47,351 with 3, 05,172 votes and BJP's Kaushlendra Singh Patel is second with 2, 57,821 votes after 28th round of counting.

The UP Lok Sabha bypoll trends favouring Samajwadi Party have triggered celebrations at the party headquarters here while a sense of gloom could be felt at the BJP office.

SP's lead on the Phulpur seat right from the first round prompted early celebrations by party workers. By noon, more good news came in as the SP candidate for Gorakhpur seat also took a lead adding to the revelry.

By 1 pm, workers started playing with colours, also raising slogans hailing the SP-BSP alliance like "Bua-Bhatija Zindabad".

Opposition parties have begun hailing the results and said they were an indicative of discontentment among the masses.

"People have spoken against the anti-farmer, anti-youth and anti-women policies of the government. It is very clear that BJP is being shown the door by the people," Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia said.

West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee, too, congratulated the SP-Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) by tweeting, "Great victory. Congratulations to Mayawati Ji and Akhilesh Yadav Ji for UP By Polls. The beginning of the end has started."

The BJP said they would analyse the results and make a strategy for 2019 general elections accordingly.

"We did not expect that BSP's vote will be transferred to SP in such a manner. We will analyse after seeing the final results & prepare for a situation in future when BSP, SP & Congress can come together and also make our strategy for winning 2019 elections" UP Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya said.