All SP, BSP candidates win in UP council polls

All the eight candidates of the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) and three of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) emerged victorious as results for the 12 state legislative council seats were announced Friday evening.

The polls were held earlier in the day. Members of the state assembly form the electoral college for the state council elections. The Samajwadi Party holds the majority in the assembly.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could manage only one seat and its another candidate lost. It, however, managed 10 extra votes from other parties.

Earlier in the day, 399 of the 403 legislators cast their votes.

The BSP's winning candidates are Pradeep Jatav, Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Dharmveer Ashok, while the ruling SP's winners were Ramesh Yadav, Ahmed Hasan, Sarojini Agarwal, Saheb Singh Saini, Virendra Singh Gujjar, Ram Jatan Rajbhar, Dr Ashok Bajpayi and Ashu Malik.

The BJP's Laxman Acharya won while its second candidate Daya Shankar Singh lost.

The elections were held as both the BJP and the BSP fielded one candidate more than what their strength in the lower house of the state legislature could guarantee.

The Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) did not field any candidates.

While the Congress issued a whip for its party legislators to vote in favour of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Ajit Singh's RLD decided to go along with Mayawati's BSP.

The Congress support had virtually ensured, before the voting, that all eight SP candidates will sail through. All eyes were on how the extra candidate each of the BSP and BJP would fare.

While the BSP managed extra votes, the BJP failed to garner the desired numbers for its second candidate's victory but managed 10 extra votes.

Reacting to the poll results, the state BJP president Laxmikant Vajpai said the results exposed the nexus of the BSP, SP, Congress and the RLD.

"What we have been always alleging about this unholy nexus has come true and has been exposed," he said while pointing out these parties were wondering how the BJP got 10 extra votes.