The Samajwadi Party (SP) on Thursday wrested Uttar Pradesh's Noorpur assembly seat from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

SP's Naeem-ul-Hasan polled 94,866 votes, against 89,188 obtained by his nearest rival, Avni Singh of the BJP in the bypoll to the assembly constituency in Binore district.

The SP candidate began leading in the vote count right from the postal ballot counting and continued to lead on, a phenomenon which continued to the 21st and the last round.

Bypolls in Noorpur, necessitated by the death of sitting BJP legislator Lokendra Singh in a road accident in February, were held on Monday and had seen a 57.31 per cent turnout amid glitches in EVM-VVPATs. Repolling was held in several booths on Wednesday.

The BJP had fielded his widow Avni Singh in an attempt to gain the electorate's sympathy but the party's gamble failed miserably as the opposition closed ranks in favour of the SP candidate.

There were ten other candidates in fray but they all lost their deposits in the keenly fought contest between the SP and BJP candidates.

The drubbing of the ruling party candidate is also been seen as a big blow to the BJP, specially the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, under whose watch the party has lost three parliamentary seats and one state assembly seat, in a little more than a year of its coming to power.
 

Samajwadi Party takes unassailable lead in Kairana

The Samajwadi Party (SP) is all set to wrest the Kairana parliamentary seat from the ruling BJP as its candidate Tabassum Hasan has taken an unassailable lead of over 43,000 votes, an Election Commission official said.

Bharatiya Janata Party's Mriganka Singh is her nearest rival while other 10 candidates in the fray are set to lose their deposits.

Talking to reporters after leading in all assembly segments, Hasan said the leads have proven beyond doubt that the people of Kairana had voted out negative and divisive politics.

Talking to IANS, she said her victory will not only be a defining defeat for the BJP-led negative and communal politics but also expressed hope that it would lead to the coming together and further cementing of forces between the Opposition ranks.

She also thanked everybody for putting in their best and pointed out how not only her party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) of Ajit Singh, but workers of the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Congress and even the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worked hard to consolidate voters in her favour.

"In the holy month of Ramadan, all the people worked hard in this scorching heat for a goal, with full confidence and positivity and the results are gladdening," she said, sounding elated on what appears to be now a certain victory.

She also demanded that all future elections be held on ballot paper system and not by electronic voting machines (EVMs), which we said were faulty and open to manipulation.

If the trends continue and the BJP loses the seat held by the late Hukum Singh, it will be a major jolt to the party, which a year back stormed to power in the state winning 323 seats in the 403-member House.