Muristek
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, April 12
The BJP today swept the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections, winning 33 of the 36 constituencies and crossing the half way mark in the Upper House of the Assembly.
Before the elections, the BJP had 34 members out of 100 in the UP Legislative Council.
The party's numbers swelled to 67 today, taking it past the simple majority.
Mandate for govt's policies
The BJP's resounding victory has again established that people of the state have faith in the leadership of PM Narendra Modi. Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister
While saffron forces continued their overall winning streak, having recently retained power in UP a historic verdict, the setback they suffered was in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary segment where the party's Sudama Patel finished third with 170 votes.
Independent Annapurna Singh won, bagging 4,234 votes in Varanasi followed by the SP candidate.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) drew a blank in the elections, with party chief Akhilesh Yadav accusing the ruling party of rigging.
"History will never forgive the BJP for what it has done to crush democracy. The BJP has no faith in the Constitution or fair elections. It is trying to weaken constitutional institutions to retain power through money power and fraud," Yadav alleged, questioning why 18 of BJP's winning candidates were from CM Yogi Adityanath's caste.
"What kind of sabka saath, sabka vikas is this bypassing SCs/STs and the OBCs?" he asked, accusing the BJP of resorting to caste politics.
PM Modi hailed the results as "another expression of people's trust in BJP's development model". He tweeted congratulations for Adityanath and BJP workers.
The SP had to bite the dust despite the Congress and BSP abstaining from elections to help consolidate the Opposition vote.
Two Independents and one candidate from the Jansatta Dal Loktantrik won.