LUCKNOW: Facing major reverses in the most crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, the ruling NDA failed to cut much ice with voters and is leading in just 36 seats, down 28 seats from the 64 it had won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
On the other hand, the INDIA bloc is leading in 43 seats, as per the trends on the Election Commission website, with the Samajwadi Party leading in 37 and the Congress in six.
While the BJP in leading in 36 seats, its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal is leading in both seats -- Bijnor and Baghpat -- it contested, while another ally Apna Dal (S) is ahead in one -- Mirzapur -– of the two seats it contested.
The most striking feature emerging from the results is that the Congress, which stood decimated with just the Rae Bareli seat in 2019, is set to not only retain it and reclaimed its other bastion of Amethi, but is also doing exemplarily well in four other seats including Saharanpur, Sitapur, Barabanki and Amroha.
KL Sharma of the Congress drubbed Union Minister Smriti Irani by a handsome margin of over a lakh votes from Amethi.
Among the prominent leaders who have taken comfortable leads over their rivals is Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Lucknow, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav in Kannauj and Mainpuri, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in Rae Bareli.
The BJP's Hema Malini is leading in Mathura while Arun Govil is trailing in Meerut. Former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's son Karan Bhushan Singh is leading by over a lakh votes against the SP's Bhagat Ram Mishra in Kaiserganj.
Besides Smriti Irani, Union minister Ajay Mishra Teni, Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey, Kaushal Kishore and senior leader and eight-time MP Maneka Gandhi have been trailing in Kheri, Chandauli, Mohanlalganj and Sultanpur respectively while Union Minister Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal(S) is leading in the Mirzapur constituency.
In the Faizabad seat in Ayodhya district, the BJP's Lallu Singh is trailing against SP's Awadhesh Prasad. The construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya was cited as an achievement by the BJP leaders during the election campaign.
In Ghazipur, slain gangster-turned politician Mukhtar Ansari's brother Afzal Ansari, who is an SP candidate, is leading against BJP's Paras Nath Rai. NDA ally Nishad Party chief Sanjay Nishad's son Praveen Nishad (BJP candidate) is trailing in Sant Kabir Nagar by 78,427 votes against SP's Laximkant Pappu Nishad.
Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party Chief Om Prakash Rajbhar's son Arvind Rajbhar is also trailing in the Ghosi seat by 62,973 against SP's Rajeev Rai.
Chandrashekhar of Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) seems set to clinch a victory in Nagina (SC) seat in his electoral debut as he is leading by 1,09,799 votes over BJP's Om Kumar.
