Lucknow: In the absence of ruling BSP
candidates, SP on Tuesday retained Nidhauli Kalan and Lakhimpur
Kheri Assembly seats where by-elections were held on Saturday.
Amit Gaurav and Utkarsh Verma won from Nidhauli Kalan
and Lakhimpur Kheri seats, relegating BJP and Congress behind
little known regional parties which finished second at both
the places.
Amit defeated his nearest rival of Kalyan Singh's
Jankranti Party, Virendra Kumar by 23,484 votes. Utkarsh
humbled Shashidhar Mishra of Peace Party by 17,589 votes, the
state election office said.
Bharat Verma of Congress took the third spot while
Rajesh Yadav of BJP fared a poor fourth losing his security
deposit in Nidhauli Kalan.
Amit is the son of Anil Kumar Singh, the sitting SP MLA
whose death had necessitated the by-election in Nidhauli
Kalan.
In Lakhimpur Kheri, the by-election was caused following
the death of sitting MLA Kaushal Kishore.
Congress had fielded Saif Ali Naqvi, son of sitting
party MP Zafar Ali Naqvi from Lakhimpur Kheri but polled only
14,061 votes.
The BSP stayed away from the bypolls with senior party
leaders maintaining that there main focus was the 2012
Assembly elections.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, November 23, 2010, 17:57