Indian democracy has a habit of surprising even the ardent poll watchers. And, it shocked all again when SP raced to lead in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, seats vacated by BJP stalwarts in Uttar Pradesh. And as of now, the leads seem to be steady with BJP in danger of facing an embarassing defeat.
Candidates of the Samajwadi Party consolidated their leads over nearest BJP rivals in Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, latest trends showed
The bypolls were necessitated after Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated their seats in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, respectively, on taking office.For Gorakhpur, the key contenders were Upendra Shukla from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Praveen Nishad from the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Surhita Chatterjee Karim from the Congress Party.
Meanwhile, candidates in the fray for the Phulpur seat are Kaushalendra Singh Patel from the BJP, Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel from the SP and Manish Mishra from the Congress Party. For these bypolls, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the SP have set aside their rivalry to join forces.
Amit Shah has reached BJP headquarters to monitor poll results.
Here's DNA's detailed analysis of the emerging trend from UP result