LUCKNOW: The BJP has won six seats and the Samajwadi Party (SP) three in the biennial elections to 11 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council seats under the Graduates’ and Teachers’ quotas. Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav said SP have won two Graduates’ constituencies of Lucknow and Varanasi, but has accused the Election Commission and local administration of deliberately withholding official results.
According to the Chief Electoral Officer’s office, the results declared on Wednesday include three winners from Graduates’ constituencies and six from Teachers’ constituencies.
In the Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers’ constituency, BJP candidate Dhruv Tripathi defeated independent candidate Rajeev Yadav by 307 votes, securing his fourth consecutive term as an MLC. Yadav alleged that he had been deliberately defeated and that 1,000 votes were stolen.
In the Lucknow Graduates’ constituency, SP candidate Kanti Singh was leading BJP’s Avnish Singh Patel by more than 14,000 votes.
The SP retained both the Teachers’ and Graduates’ seats in Varanasi. Counting was halted for an hour at 7.20 pm after BJP candidate Kedarnath staged a dharna, accusing observer Pranjal Yadav of orchestrating fraud.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “Everyone understands the conspiracy to stop or slow down the counting of votes in Kashi; the BJP will not succeed in this. Counting has resumed in Kashi. SP's Ashutosh Sinha is leading by more than 9,000 votes.”
In the Agra Graduates’ constituency, BJP candidate Manvendra Pratap Singh won, though the official announcement was awaited. The BJP also won both seats in Meerut, with Dinesh Goyal securing the Graduates’ seat and Shrichand Sharma winning the Teachers’ constituency.
The BJP’s Dr Hari Singh Dhillon won the Bareilly Teachers’ seat, while Umesh Dwivedi won the Lucknow Teachers’ constituency.
In the Agra Teachers’ constituency, SP candidate Akash Agarwal defeated BJP’s Hari Kishore Tiwari. Agarwal had earlier threatened to convert to Islam while breaking down in tears. In the Jhansi-Allahabad Graduates’ constituency, SP candidate Man Singh Yadav defeated BJP’s Ashok Kumar Rathore.
Polling for the 11 seats—five Graduates’ and six Teachers’ constituencies—was held across Uttar Pradesh on October 23. A total of 152 candidates were in the fray, and voting was conducted using ballot papers.
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday accused the Varanasi administration of coming under "contradictory pressure" from Delhi and Lucknow during counting for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections, alleging that the result favouring his party's candidate was ready but the victory certificate was being withheld.
Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency since 2014, emerged as the focus of Yadav's allegations as counting continued in the graduates' constituency there late into the evening.
In a series of posts on X, Yadav alleged that the counting process was being slowed down or halted to prevent the BJP's defeat in Varanasi from becoming national news. He urged the Election Commission to demonstrate its impartiality and warned that officials allegedly involved in manipulating the results could face legal action.
"Voting being stopped or slowed down in Varanasi is part of a conspiracy, and everyone understands it. But the BJP will not succeed," he wrote in a post at 9.35 pm, adding that the result of the SP candidate's victory was ready but the certificate had not been issued.
The winners so far
Meerut Graduates’ Constituency – Dinesh Kumar Goel (BJP)
Lucknow Teachers’ Constituency – Umesh Dwivedi (BJP)
Meerut Teachers’ Constituency – Chand Sharma (BJP)
Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers’ Constituency – Dr Hari Singh Dhillon (BJP)
Varanasi Teachers’ Constituency – Lal Bihari Yadav (SP)
Agra Teachers’ Constituency – Dr Akash Agrawal (SP)
Agra Graduates’ Constituency — Manvendra Pratap Singh (BJP)
Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates’ constituency — Dr Man Singh Yadav (SP)
Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers’ constituency—Dhruv Tripathi (BJP)
