In Varanasi local polls, BJP loses 2 seats that it held for a decade

The BJP has lost two seats in the legislative council elections in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi home constituency, to the Samajwadi Party (SP).

On Saturday (December 5), SP’s Ashutosh Sinha won the Varanasi Division Graduates’ seat and on Friday (December 4) Lal Bihari Yadav won the teachers’ constituency. The BJP held both posts for 10 years.

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Polling was held on Tuesday (December 1) for 11 seats to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council – the upper house of the state legislature, which has five seats reserved for graduates and six for teachers. Teachers’ associations with affiliations to the BJP, SP, and the Congress had contested the polls. A total of 199 candidates had stood for elections.

The BJP won four of the 11 seats, SP three seats and independent candidates won two seats. The SP’s victory in a constituency dominated by the  BJP has come as a surprise.  “It’s a big victory. I am happy with our result,” Lal Bihari Yadav, the Samajwadi candidate in the Varanasi Division Teachers’ Constituency said.

PM Modi has been elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Varanasi. He won the elections first in 2014 and then in 2019, defeating AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal and a Samajwadi Party candidate, respectively–both were massive wins. Prior to PM Modi, the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat was held by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi.

“It’s a big victory. I am happy with our result,” Lal Bihari Yadav, the Samajwadi candidate in the Varanasi Division Teachers’ Constituency said

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Uttar Pradesh is one of the six states with a bicameral legislature, with two houses – the Vidhan Sabha or the Legislative Assembly and the Vidhan Parishad or the Legislative Council. The legislative council has 100 members.