UP elections: BJP leads 7 seats in Lakhimpur Kheri

Lucknow, Mar 10: The counting of votes in Uttar Pradesh for the elections held in seven phases started at 8 am on Thursday with three-layer security in place and cameras installed at all centres.

The counting of the postal ballot is underway and the BJP is leading in seven seats out of eight seats in Lakhimpur Kheri which was a big part of the election narrative in the assembly elections. The SP is leading in one seat.

Why Lakhimpur Kheri is in The Focus?

Eight people, including four farmers, were killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence last October. The farmers were mowed down allegedly by cars carrying BJP workers. Police had arrested Union minister Ajay Mishra's son Ashish in the case and he got bail last month.

The opposition parties have lost no opportunity to corner the BJP to build an anti-farmer narrative during the election campaigns.

At this stage, all eight assembly seats are with the BJP.

In 2017 polls, BJP's Yogesh Verma defeated Utkarsh Verma Madhur from Samajwadi Party with a margin of 37,748 votes.

This time, a total of 65 candidates remained in the fray from the eight assembly segments in the district. Both the ruling and the primary opposition party Samajwadi Party have retained their contestants from the 2017 polls.

Lakhimpur Kheri district with Paliya, Nighasan, Gola, Srinagar (SC), Dhaurahra, Lakhimpur, Kasta (SC) and Mohammadi assembly seats in its fold went for polls in the fourth phase of elections on February 23.

As per the reports, 12 candidates remained in the fray in the Lakhimpur assembly segment while six candidates are in Paliya assembly constituency. Among others, nine candidates are in the fray in Srinagar and Dhaurahra assembly seats, respectively, eight candidates on Kasta and seven on Nighasan, Gola and Mohammadi seats, respectively.