The ruling BJP candidates defeated their nearest rivals by a wide margin in all the eight seats of Lakhimpur Kheri district, where the killing of eight people, including four farmers, during an anti-farm law protest in October was a poll issue.
The four farmers were killed when a car allegedly belonging to Ashish Mishra, the son of Union minister Ajay Mishra ‘Teni’, ran them over.
The BJP had won all the eight seats of Lakhimpur Kheri in 2017 but this time the contest was expected to be difficult, especially after the opposition stepped up the attack following Mishra’s release on bail a few days ahead of the polling.
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Voting for the 403-member UP assembly was held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7.
BJP’s Shashank Verma from Nighasan, where the violence took place, won the seat by over 40,000 votes. Verma polled over 1,22,455 votes against 81,736 votes for his nearest rival RS Khuswaha of the Samajwadi Party, the Election Commission data showed.
The BJP was leading in Kasta, Palia, Gola Gorakhnath, Sri Nagar, Dhaurahra, Lakhimpur and Mohammdi segments by huge margins, also.
The party, which was leading in 260 seats along with its allies at around 3.30 pm, is set to script history by retaining power in Uttar Pradesh, where a party hasn’t won a successive term since 1985.
The Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party was leading in 136 seats, a considerable improvement from 47 seats in 2017.
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