UP trend at 12 noon: INDIA bloc leads in 42 seats, BJP-led NDA in 37
Akhilesh Yadav leads in Kannauj, Rahul Gandhi in Rae Bareli, Kishori Lal Sharma in Amethi; among BJP leaders, Narendra Modi leads in Varanasi, Rajnath Singh in Lucknow
In what came as a surprise to many, the INDIA bloc was leading in 42 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, according to trends on the Election Commission website around 12 noon. The BJP-led NDA was slightly behind with 37 leads in a state that is considered one of its fortresses.
INDIA bloc parties Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress were leading in 34 and eight seats, respectively, the election panel’s data for polls to the 80 parliamentary constituencies in the state showed.
The BJP was leading in 35 seats and its ally RLD in two. The Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) was leading in one seat.
Rahul, Akhilesh, KL Sharma lead
Among the prominent INDIA bloc leaders who were ahead are Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav in Kannauj and Mainpuri respectively, and Congress candidates Rahul Gandhi and Kishori Lal Sharma in Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively.
Rahul Gandhi was leading by over 1.10 lakh votes in Rae Bareli, while Sharma was leading against Smriti Irani by almost 40,000 votes around 12 noon.
SP’s Awadhesh Prasad was leading in Faizabad-Ayodhya by about 5,000 votes against the BJP’s Lallu Singh, while Congress’s SP-backed candidate Ujjwal Raman Singh was leading in Allahabad against BJP’s Neeraj Tripathi.
SP’s RK Chaudhary was leading against Union minister and BJP candidate Kaushal Kishore in Mohanlalganj by over 55,000 votes, while Congress’s Kunwar Danish Ali was leading against BJP’s Karan Singh Tanwar in Amroha.
In 2019, the Congress had bagged only one seat in the state: Rae Bareli.
Modi, Rajnath lead
Among the prominent BJP leaders who have taken comfortable leads over their rivals are Narendra Modi in Varanasi, and Rajnath Singh in Lucknow.
The BJP’s Arun Govil and Hema Malini were ahead of their rivals in the Meerut and Mathura seats respectively.
Besides Smriti Irani, senior BJP leaders Ajay Mishra Teni and Maneka Gandhi, and Anupriya Patel of the Apna Dal(S) were trailing in the Kheri, Sultanpur, and Mirzapur seats respectively.
(With agency inputs)
