Lucknow: BJP supporters celebrate with colours, as the party heads to a landslide victory, in UP Assembly elections, at the party office, in Lucknow, Thursday, March 10, 2022. (PTI Photo/Nand Kumar) .
New Delhi, March 10 (PTI): The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party appeared on course to retain power in Uttar Pradesh, with poll trends on Thursday showing the party-led alliance leading in 261 seats as against 128 of its nearest rival Samajwadi Party.
The state has 403 assembly seats and 202 seats are needed to form a majority government.
Prominent candidates who have secured a lead include Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur Urban, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav from Karhal, Shivpal Yadav from Jaswant Nagar and Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Shukla from Rampur Khas (Pratapgarh).
Adityanath is heading for a landslide victory in Gorakhpur Urban seat leading over his nearest rival, SP's Subhawati Shukla, by about 15,000 votes.
The Bahujan Samaj Party nominee has secured 1,477 votes while Chandra Shekhar of Azad Samaj Party has bagged 1,386 votes.
Chetna Pandey of the Congress is struggling with 272 votes and Aam Aadmi Party nominee Vijay Kumar Shrivastava with 93 votes.
However, Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya is trailing from Sirathu seat while Swami Prasad Maurya of the SP is also trailing from Fazil Nagar seat. Congress State president Ajay Kumar Lallu is trailing from Tumkuhi Raj.
According to official trends available for 403 seats, the BJP is leading in 259 seats while its allies Apna Dal (S) and Nishad party are leading in 10 and three seats, respectively.
While the Samajwadi Party is leading in 112 seats, its allies SBSP and RLD are leading in three and eight seats respectively.
The BSP and the Congress were leading in three and two seats, respectively. Two candidates of the Jansatta Dal, including Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya in Kunda seat, were leading.
The BJP's vote percentage is 42.3, while the SP got 31.6 per cent votes. The Congress has got a meagre 2.40 per cent, while the BSP got 12.7 per cent.
In 2017, the BJP got 312 seats and its allies Apna Dal and SBSP nine and four seats, respectively.
The SP got 47, BSP 19, Congress 7 and others five seats in the last assembly elections.
