UP Council polls: Fresh jolt to BJP as second candidate loses

In a fresh jolt to BJP after its recent drubbing in the Uttar Pradesh Cantonment Board polls, the saffron party today failed to ensure victory of its second candidate for the biennial Legislative Council elections.
Adding to its cup of woes, the state's ruling Samajwadi Party and opposition BSP won an extra seat each with support of Congress, RLD and some other parties, besides Independents.
Polling was held for 12 seats and SP won eight, BSP three and BJP one, Principal Secretary of the UP Legislative Council Pradeep Dubey told reporters.
BJP's loss of face came close on the heels of its defeat in the UP Cantonment Board polls past fortnight when all the candidates supported by it in Varanasi and Lucknow lost.

Varanasi is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency, while Lucknow is the home turf of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
BJP suffered drubbing in Varanasi and Lucknow, besides Agra, Bareilly and Mathura Cantonment Board polls barely eight months after it had scored a landslide victory bagging 71 of the 80 seats in UP in the May 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Besides, in the UP Assembly by-elections soon after Modi swept to power at the Centre, BJP had lost nine out of 11 seats in the politically-crucial state.
The elected SP candidates are Ahmad Hasan, Ramesh Yadav, Ramjatan Rajbhar, Sahab Singh Saini, Ashok Bajpai, Virendra Singh Gurjar, Sarojini Agarwal and Ashu Malik. Hasan is Health Minister and Leader of the House in the Legislative Council.

BSP nominees who won are Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Dharmveer Ashok and Pradeep.
The BJP candidate who could make it to the portals of the Upper House was Lakshman Acharya, while the second candidate Dayashankar Singh had to bite the dust.
Among the 12 retiring members whose term ends on January 30, seven are from BSP, three from SP and two from BJP.
The break-up of the 100-member Council will now become BSP (55), SP (26), BJP (7), Congress (2), RLD (1), Teachers' Constituency (5), Independents (4).
The state Assembly has 403 members and first preference votes of 31 MLAs were needed to ensure victory of one nominee for the Upper House. BJP has 41 MLAs.

A saving grace for BJP was the victory of the candidate backed by it for the Legislative Council bypoll to Kanpur division graduates' constituency. The results of the January 19 polls were declared today and Arun Pathak defeated his nearest Congress-backed rival Manvendra Swaroop by 1,816 votes.