March 14, 2018: In Uttar Pradesh, main opposition Samajwadi Party has won both Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha by-elections. In Phulpur, Samajwadi Party candidate Nagendra Singh Patel has won the seat by a margin of above 59 thousand votes. Congress candidate Manish Misra stood fourth in the electoral battle.
In Gorakhpur, SP candidate Praveen Nishad has wrested the seat from BJP. He defeated his nearest BJP rival Upendra Shukla by a margin of 21,900 votes. Samajwadi Party contested the by-elections with the support of BSP.
Ruling BJP said that the alliance between Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party has affected the results of Lok Sabha by-elections. Reacting to the outcome of the by-elections, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath termed the alliance as unnatural and said that over self-confidence among party leaders and workers contributed badly in the results. He said, the party will analyse the results and prepare its strategy for 2019 general elections.
Bypolls in Gorakhpur were necessitated following the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, while Phulpur seat was vacated by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
In Bihar, RJD has retained Araria Lok Sabha and Jahanabad assembly by-polls while BJP retained Bhabhua assembly seat. In Araria, RJD candidate Sarfaraz Alam defeated his nearest rival Pradeep Kumar Singh of BJP by a margin of over 57 thousand votes.
RJD Candidate Kumar Krishna Mohan beat his nearest rival of JD(U) Aviram Sharma by a margin of over 35 thousand votes in Jahanabad assembly seat. BJP candidate Rinki Rani Pandey defeated her nearest rival by a margin of over 15 thousand votes in Bhabhua assembly constituency. The by-polls in Bihar were necessitated due to deaths of RJD MP Mohammad Taslimuddin, RJD MLA Mudrika Singh Yadav and BJP MLA Anand Bhusan Pandey. Polling on all the 5 seats was held last Sunday. (AIR News)
