UP bypolls: SP wins Mainpuri, eight assembly seats; BJP manages three (Evening Lead)

The ruling Samajwadi Party made a stunning comeback in Uttar Pradesh Tuesday as it won eight of the 11 assembly seats that went for byelections. It also retained the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat which was vacated by party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The only consolation for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that had won all these 11 seats with its ally Apna Dal in the 2012 assembly polls were its victories in Noida, Saharanpur City and Lucknow East.

Tej Pratap Singh, grand-nephew of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, defeated his BJP rival Prem Singh Shakya by over 3.21 lakh votes in the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency.

Samajwadi Party's Nawaab Jaan wrested the Thakurdwara seat from the BJP by a margin of 27,000 votes, Bansidhar Baudh won from Balha by over 25,000 votes and K.G. Patel won from Nighasan from his BJP rival by 18,796 votes.

Samajwadi Party candidate from Hamirpur S.C. Prajapati won over his nearest BJP rival by 68,552 votes, while Kaptan Singh pulled a stunning victory over the BJP candidate in Charkhari by over 50,000 seats.

This seat was vacated by union water resources minister Uma Bharati after she was elected to the Lok Sabha from Jhansi.

Vachaspati, the Samajwadi Party candidate from Sirathu, won by 24,552 votes, and Ruchi Veera won from Bijnore by 12,000 votes.

BJP-ally Apna Dal's candidate was defeated in Rohania by Mahendra Patel by 14,400 votes.

While Vimla Batham of the BJP won from Noida by over 58,000 votes, Ashutosh 'Gopal' Tandon - son of veteran BJP leader and former Lucknow MP Lalji Tandon - from Lucknow East defeated Samajwadi Party's Juhi Singh by 26,456 votes.

BJP's Rajeev Gumber won from Saharanpur City by 26,000 votes.

Anupriya Patel, Apna Dal MP from Mirzapur, whose mother Krishna Patel lost from Rohani assembly seat, accused the district administration of working in favour of the ruling Samajwadi Party and sought countermanding of the polls.

She also alleged that the district magistrate and police officials were working as Samajwadi Party workers, and that seals of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) were broken before counting took place.

Anupriya Patel said she will bring the rigging issue to the notice of the Election Commission, and if needed to the Supreme Court.

Reacting to the emphatic win of his party in the bypolls, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav called it a victory of development and prosperity.

He said the people have rejected the communal brand of politics of the BJP.

State BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpayi conceded defeat and said the party will have to take stock of the reasons for its loss.

He, however, said that since long, the ruling party has been winning in state bypolls and not so much should be read into the victory of the Samajwadi Party.