UP Assembly bypoll: BJP fails to retain Pharenda; SP wins, Congress 2nd
According to an Election Commission report, 2,056 voters had used option of None of the Above (NOTA).
At a time when BJP is planning to highlight the “achievements” of the Narendra Modi government — which will complete one year at the Centre this month — the party on Sunday lost the Pharenda Assembly bypoll in Maharajganj to ruling Samajwadi Party.
The election followed the disqualification of BJP MLA Bajrang Bahadur Singh from the Assembly on charges of violating the Representation of the People Act. After winning 71 out of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP last year, this is the ninth Assembly seat that the party has lost in bypolls.
SP candidate Vinod bagged 64,878 votes and defeated Congress candidate Virendra Chaudhary by a margin of 9,231 votes. In the 2012 Assembly polls, SP had received only 26,006 votes. Cong’s Chaudhary too had come second with 34,586 votes. Thus, this time, Chaudhary got 21,060 more votes.
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BJP candidate Bajrang Bahadur Singh, who had won the 2012 elections by securing 47,921 votes, slipped to third place with 41,247 votes.
According to an Election Commission report, 2,056 voters had used option of None of the Above (NOTA).
In the bypolls held in 10 Assembly seats in UP last September, BJP had lost seven to SP — Sirathu, Charkhari, Nighasan, Balha, Thakurdwara, Bijnor and Hamirpur. It had won these seats in 2012. As party MLAs got elected to the Lok Sabha in May 2014, these seats fell vacant.
Last October, BJP lost Kairana Assembly seat in Shamli district to SP in a bypoll — it had not lost the seat since 1996.
In April this year, a bypoll was held in Charkhari, which SP retained.
When contacted, BJP state spokesperson Manoj Mishra said: “SP is misusing the government machinery to win bypolls. When Assembly polls will be held, SP will face defeat.”
Seeing the results as a ray of hope, Satyadev Tripathi — chairman of Congress communication department — said this shows that the “so-called Modi wave was over”. “The BJP has not only failed to retain its seat but has also been rejected by voters who have turned to Congress,” he said.
SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said the people have given mandate against “politics of communalism”. “The BJP had won Lok Sabha polls by misleading the people. But they are continuously losing bypolls because the Centre has not done any work in one year,” he said denying BJP’s allegations of misuse of power.
Source:: Indian Express
