Uttar Pradesh bypolls: SP leads in Mainpuri, Rampur Sadar and RLD in Khatauli

SP's Dimple Yadav is winning the Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency and is leading with 35,574 votes over her nearest BJP rival Raghuraj Singh Shakya

Lucknow, Dec 08: Samajwadi Party candidate Dimple Yadav has taken a comfortable lead in the high stake Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency while its nominees of the RLD and the SP are ahead in the Khatauli and the Rampur seats respectively, according to trends for the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.

As per the trends, Yadav is leading with 35,574 votes over her nearest rival BJP candidate Raghuraj Singh Shakya. Meanwhile, RLD's Madan Bhaiya is leading by 1,387 votes in Khatauli against BJP's Rajkumar Saini, the Election Commission website showed. Samajwadi Party candidate Asim Raja is leading from Rampur Sadar over BJP's Akash Saxena by a margin of 3,224 votes. Bypolls for these seats were held on December 5.

The Mainpuri parliamentary constituency fell vacant after the death of SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav. It had registered 54.01 per cent voting, whereas the Khatauli assembly segment had recorded 56.46 per cent polling on December 5 and Rampur Sadar had seen a low 33 per cent. Bypoll in Rampur Sadar and Khatauli were necessitated due to the disqualification of SP MLA Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini following their conviction by separate courts in different matters.

The bypolls are witnessing a direct contest between the ruling BJP and the opposition Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress are not in the frays. Following defeats in Azamgarh and the Rampur Lok Sabha bypolls, considered the SP's bastions, the Mainpuri parliamentary and the Rampur and Khatauli assembly by-elections have become important for the Akhilesh Yadav-led party and his ally RLD.

However, the bypoll results will not have any impact as the ruling Yogi government has a comfortable majority.

Meanwhile, the BJP is heading for a landslide victory in Gujarat Assembly polls while there is a neck-and-neck fight in Himachal Pradesh between the saffron party and Congress. The BJD is leading in Padmapur bypoll in Odisha.