UP election results 2022 | Yogi Adityanath leads by over 60,000 votes in Gorakhpur Urban

(File Photo)

In Gorakhpur Urban, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and incumbent Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is leading by more than 60,000 votes.

The contestants included BJP's Yogi Adityanath, SP's Sabhawati Shukla, BSP's Khwaja Shamsuddin, Congress' Chetna Pandey, and AAP's Vijay Kumar Srivastava.

It was a closely watched constituency because CM Yogi Adityanath was one of the contestants. A five-time MP, Adityanath was contesting from a state for the first time.

Election observers had said that this fight wouldn't be a cakewalk for the chief minister, considering the party's poor performance in Panchayat polls and with SP making a strong impact, especially in western UP where there was anger over the farm bills.

Another keenly followed candidature was of Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram)’s Chandra Shekhar Azad’s, who has also filed his papers from here. He had tried to form a pre-poll alliance with SP but that had come to nought.

Read also: Why Gorakhpur Sadar is unlike any other contest in UP

While there is curiosity around Azad, the stronger fight came from SP’s candidate Subhavati Shukla.

Subhavati is former BJP strongman Upendra Dutt Shukla’s widow. The Shukla family had alleged that BJP had humiliated them by ignoring their contribution in building the party in eastern UP. Rumours had it that the family was also angry that Shukla’s younger son Amit Dutt Shukla had been denied a ticket.

The BSP candidate Khwaja Shamsuddin while being a community leader was considered a lightweight for being a first-time contestant. 

Simmering discontent

There were worries about party infighting for BJP, with sitting MLA Radha Mohan Agarwal being denied a ticket. 

In the last three state elections–2017, 2012, and 2007–Agarwal had won this constituency for BJP, and Agarwal had won from here in 2002 too but as an Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) candidate. 

A few months before the ticket distribution, Agarwal had been given a showcause notice by the party for saying that he will resign if any Muslim is evicted from the country. He was speaking in the context of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).