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The Bharatiya Janata Party is leading in six of nine Uttar Pradesh Assembly bypolls held this week, as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reasserts control over a state at the core of the BJP's Hindi voter base.
At 2 pm, according to the Election Commission, the BJP was leading in the Kundarki, Ghaziabad, Khair, Phulpur, Katehari, and Majhawan seats. The Rashtriya Lok Dal, an ally, leads in Meerapur.
The Samajwadi Party - which defeated the BJP in the April-June federal election, scooping up 42 of the state's 80 seats (up 37 from last time) - is leading in Karhal and Sishamau only.
Karhal is party boss Akhilesh Yadav's bastion; Mr Yadav won by nearly 70,000 votes in the 2022 election, extending his party's hold on the seat to over three decades.
The bypolls were triggered after sitting MLAs - including Mr Yadav - were elected to the Lok Sabha.
In Meerapur, the RLD's Mithlesh Pal is nearly 20,000 votes ahead of her nearest rival, the SP's Sumbul Rana. The seat was won by the RLD, by Chandan Chauhan, in the last election.
In Kundarki, Ramveer Singh has a massive lead, of nearly one lakh, over the SP's Mohd Rizwan and, barring the most unlikely turn of events, will flip the seat won by the rival party in 2022.
The Ghaziabad seat is set to remain with the BJP; Atul Garg won it for the saffron party last time and Sanjeev Sharma is likely to retain the seat for the party. Mr Sharma is well over 63,000 votes ahead.
The BJP is also set to retain Khair and Phulpur, where Surender Diler and Deepak Patel are leading their SP rivals, Charu Kain and Mohd Siddique, by over 40,000 and around 9,000 votes, respectively.
The BJP is also en route to claim the Katehari seat won by the Samajwadi Party in the last election; Dharmraj Nishad is over 8,000 votes ahead of the SP's Shobawati Verma.
And finally, in Majhawan, the BJP's Shuchismita Maurya leads Dr Jyoti Bind of the SP by 5,000-odd votes; this seat was won by the NISHAD Party in the last election.
Overall, the ruling party has not only retained the three seats it won in 2022 but also flipped two others - Kundarki and Katehari - while also picking up a sixth from allies NISHAD Party.
Voting for these bypolls have been hit by a wave of alleged electoral malpractice, including claims by Akhilesh Yadav that voters were threatened by police in Muzaffarnagar's Kakrouli. District officials, however, claimed stones were pelted at cops trying to break up a fight between two groups.
READ | UP Official Counters Akhilesh Yadav's Claims Of Voter Harassment
The Samajwadi Party also accused the police of "misbehaving" with voters in Meerapur. "They are being stopped from casting their votes, voting is getting affected. Police is misbehaving with voters and using lathis on women at booth number 318 of Mirapur assembly constituency in Muzaffarnagar. Election Commission should take cognisance and ensure fair voting," the party said on X.
On that contentious note, SP Lok Sabha MP Dharmendra Yadav said, "We will win more than three seats. We would have won all nine seats but the way the police was used... they (the BJP) cheated."
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