After humiliating defeat, Yogi Adityanath cancels events for today

Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday congratulated the winning candidates in bypolls, attributing the loss to the overconfidence among the party workers.

A day after losing the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha by-elections, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath has cancelled all his engagements scheduled for Thursday and called for meetings with officials instead.

The BJP has held Gorakhpur since 1989. The Gorakhpur seat was held by Yogi for five terms before he vacated it to move to the UP Legislative assembly. The same route was taken by deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, who became the first BJP leader to win from the seat during the 2017 assembly elections. Phulpur was important for the BJP as it won the seat for the first time in 2014. It was represented by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and later became a BSP stronghold.

Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday congratulated the winning candidates in bypolls, attributing the loss to the overconfidence among the party workers. News18 reported that that Yogi after meeting with officials would also hold interactions with party workers, leaders to discuss upcoming Rajya Sabha Polls.

The BJP has now fielded a total 11 candidates against ten Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh for March 23 elections. BJP has nominated Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, GVL Narsimha Rao and Harnath Singh Yadav, Anil Agarwal, Vidhya Sagar Sonkar and Salil Bishnoi.

(With agency inputs)