SP candidate wins Bhatpar Rani bypoll

All other 10 candidates,including those of the Bahujan Samaj Party,Congress and the BJP,lost their security deposit.

Ashutosh got 73,100 votes,much more than his late father Kameshwar Upadhyay who had polled 56,017 votes in the 2012 general election.

Kameshwar was minister of sports and youth welfare in the SP government when he died in October last year,causing the by-election.

Sabhakunwar polled 38,998 votes. In the 2012 Assembly elections,he had contested as BSP candidate and polled 41,093 votes.

In spite of the campaigning by all senior state leaders of the BSP,the party’s candidate — Binda — got only 24,711 votes and was placed third.

Contesting his first election,Congress candidate Raghvendra Vir Vikram secured 10,361 votes and stood fourth while BJP candidate Raj Kumar Shahi stood in fifth place by securing 5,851 votes,which is almost half of his 11,353 votes in the 2012 general election.

As the counting of votes began on Thursday morning,Ashutosh took an early lead and increased it in every subsequent round.

Leader of the House Ahmed Hasan announced the by-election result in the Legislative Council.

He said that the people had faith in the SP government and this was demonstrated by the party candidate’s victory in the by-election. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Khan made a similar announcement in the Assembly.

Later,the BSP asked the Election Commission to scrap the election,alleging that it had been “gravely influenced” by government officials close to the Samajwadi Party,and demanded that fresh election be held under the observation of officials from outside UP.

Party general secretary Naseemuddin Siddiqui said the officials posted in Deoria district openly favoured the SP candidate and created obstructions to BSP leaders campaigning there. He said more than half-a-dozen BSP leaders were booked for violation of model code of conduct without any basis. Siddiqui said he had informed the ECI and the office of UP’s Chief Electoral Officer several times about the “biased” functioning of Deoria district magistrate,who is also the district election officer,Deoria Superintendent of Police and Bhatpar Rani sub-divisional magistrate who is also the returning officer,but no action was taken.