(ET)
The Samajwadi Party aced the first electoral test since the general election to establish itself as the main opposition in Uttar Pradesh, even as the BJP and allies cemented its commanding position in the country’s most populous state by winning eight out of the 11 assembly seats for which by-elections were held. The SP not only retained its Rampur seat but also snatched one seat each from the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party in the first set of electoral battles since BSP leader Mayawati snapped the alliance with it complaining that the SP’s votes did not get transferred to the BSP in the Lok Sabha polls.
The BSP had a policy of not contesting bypolls but it started contesting from May this year when it fielded its candidate from Hamirpur assembly seat. In the latest round of bypolls, the SP got 22.61% votes while the BSP got 17.02% votes. “On two seats – Ghosi and Iglas – there were no candidates from the SP,” senior SP leader Udayveer Singh told . “If you minus these two seats, then our voting percentage on rest nine seats was over 32%.”
