Months before the 2027 state assembly polls, the elections to 11 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council graduate and teachers’ constituency seats turned into a setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its strongholds Varanasi and Lucknow, besides witnessing a close contest in Gorakhpur, even as the ruling party won six seats overall, while the Samajwadi Party got a boost as it bagged four seats and was leading in another.
The BJP, which was pushed to the backfoot in the 2024 Lok Sabha election when its Uttar Pradesh tally fell to 33 from 62 in 2019, was looking to increase its tally in the council election to send the message that it had regained ground before the 2027 assembly election. The SP also snatched the Agra teachers’ seat that an independent candidate had previously won before shifting allegiance to the BJP. The party had also hoped to use any gains to counter the Opposition narrative of dissatisfaction among the youth, the Ram temple donation theft controversy, upper caste anger over UGC guidelines and Opposition accusations of manipulation in EVMs. Ballot papers were used in this election. In Lucknow, represented by defence minister Rajnath Singh in the Lok Sabha, the Samajwadi Party wrested the graduate seat from the BJP.
Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak said, “BJP workers reached out to voters across the state and have won seats. The BJP drew solace from its performance in west Uttar Pradesh where the party retained the Meerut graduate and teachers’ seats, with its candidates Dinesh Kumar Goyal and Shrichand Sharma securing victories. The INDIA alliance uses false rhetoric when they get defeated. In his first public response to the results, Yadav struck a note of caution.
In the Meerut teachers’ constituency, Shrichand Sharma (BJP) won with a total of 18,099 votes. In the Meerut graduate constituency, the winner Dinesh Kumar Goyal secured 24,929 votes, according to an official press release from the office of the Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer . BJP is going to form the third consecutive government in the state with full majority (after the 2027 UP assembly polls.
Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said the BJP had largely repeated its previous performance but conceded that the party had hoped to win more seats. Samajwadi Party national president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday congratulated party candidates and workers.
