LUCKNOW: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured six seats while the Samajwadi Party (SP) won three as results for nine of the 11 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council constituencies were declared by Wednesday evening.Counting continued in the remaining two Graduates’ constituencies of Lucknow and Varanasi.According to the office of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), results for all six Teachers’ constituencies and three of the five Graduates’ constituencies had been declared by 8 pm on Wednesday.Of the six Teachers’ seats, the BJP won four while the SP secured two. In the Graduates’ constituencies, the BJP won two seats and the SP one.In the Meerut Graduates’ constituency, BJP candidate Dinesh Kumar Goyal emerged victorious with 24,929 votes, while party colleague Manvendra Pratap Singh won the Agra Graduates’ constituency with 42,743 votes.The SP registered a victory in the Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates’ constituency, where Maan Singh Yadav secured 60,358 votes.Among the Teachers’ constituencies, BJP candidate Umesh Dwivedi won the Lucknow seat with 13,179 votes, while SP candidate Lal Bihari Yadav emerged victorious from Varanasi with 11,612 votes.In the Agra Teachers’ constituency, SP candidate Akash Agarwal secured victory with 14,046 votes.The BJP retained its hold over the Meerut and Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers’ constituencies. Shrichand Sharma won the Meerut seat with 18,099 votes, while Hari Singh Dhillon secured the Bareilly-Moradabad seat with 21,672 votes.One of the closest contests was witnessed in the Gorakhpur-Faizabad Teachers’ constituency, where BJP candidate Dhruv Kumar Tripathi registered his fourth consecutive victory, defeating Independent candidate Rajiv Yadav by a narrow margin of 307 votes.Tripathi secured 16,790 votes, with the outcome decided after the counting of second-preference votes.Following his victory, Tripathi acknowledged the tough competition posed by his rival and praised Rajiv Yadav for putting up a strong fight and winning the confidence of teachers.He said victory and defeat were part of the electoral process, but ultimately, a win remained a win. Tripathi also responded to allegations raised by the opposition during the election.Meanwhile, counting remained underway in the politically significant Lucknow and Varanasi Graduates’ constituencies.According to the CEO’s office, counting in the Lucknow Graduates’ constituency had completed eight rounds by 8 pm, with the next round beginning thereafter.Similarly, five rounds of counting had been completed in the Varanasi Graduates’ constituency, where the subsequent round was underway.With nine results declared, the BJP had established a lead over the SP in the overall tally, winning twice as many seats as its principal rival.The final party-wise position in the 11-member electoral contest will become clear after counting concludes in the remaining two Graduates’ constituencies.
