Lucknow, Oct 29 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections could throw up a six-five result. While the BJP has already won six of the 11 seats, the Samajwadi Party is poised to bag five with three results announced and two yet to be.
A senior district official said on Thursday that the SP has won the Lucknow Graduates' constituency. The BJP candidate for the Varanasi Graduates' constituency conceded defeat.
Polling for the 11 Legislative Council seats was held on October 23 and the counting of votes began on Tuesday.
According to results declared by the end of Wednesday, the BJP had won Agra Graduates' constituency, Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers' constituency, Lucknow Teachers' constituency, Meerut Teachers' and Graduates' constituencies, and Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers' constituency.
The SP had won Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates' constituency, and Varanasi and Agra-Aligarh Teachers' constituencies.
A senior district official told PTI that SP candidate Kanti Singh has won the Lucknow Graduates' constituency and has been issued the certificate of election.
According to data shared earlier, Kanti Singh had received 51,168 votes against 36,313 secured by BJP nominee Avneesh Kumar Singh after more than eight rounds of counting.
In Varanasi Graduates' constituency, SP's Ashutosh Sinha had received 50,462 votes against BJP candidate Kedar Nath Singh's 33,478 after the ninth round of counting of first-preference votes, data showed.
Kedar Nath Singh conceded defeat in a social media post. He thanked voters for their support and said he accepted the mandate with humility and in accordance with democratic norms.
"Although we could not achieve the expected success in this election, your affection, cooperation and trust will always remain invaluable to me," the BJP candidate said in Hindi.
Kedar Nath Singh also thanked the BJP and alliance leaders, workers and supporters. He said he would continue to work for the interests and concerns of the Graduates' community.
"The commitment to public service does not depend on an election result," he added.
The MLC polls were being seen as a prestige battle between the BJP and the SP ahead of next year's Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
Before the polls, the BJP held six of the 11 seats – Agra, Meerut-Saharanpur and Lucknow Graduates' seats and Bareilly-Moradabad, Lucknow and Meerut-Saharanpur Teachers' constituencies.
The SP held three – Varanasi and Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates' seats and Varanasi Teachers' constituency.
The remaining two seats – Agra and Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers' constituencies – were held by Independents.
(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)