BJP records huge victory, wins all three MLC seats in Uttar Pradesh

Lucknow: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won all three MLC seats in Kanpur, Gorakhpur, and Bareilly.

While the polling for the first phase of Assembly Elections 2017 was underway in Uttar Pradesh, the results of the Legislative Council have given the BJP a reason to cheer up.

The polling for the same was held on February 03. Allahabad and Kanpur also went for Teachers MLC elections. 

The three seats won by BJP are graduate MLC seats.

BJP's Arun Pathak defeated Congress' Manvendra Swaroop by 9,154 votes in Kanpur graduate constituency.

From Gorakhpur-Faizabad graduate constituency, BJP's Devendra Singh, who was earlier in Samajwadi Party, trounced Sanjayan Tripathi.

Bharatiya Janta Party candidate Jaipal Singh 'Vyasth' has retained the Bareilly-Moradabad Graduate seat of the Legislative Council.

Meanwhile, today, polling was held in 73 Assembly constituencies in the first of the seven-phase UP polls being seen as a litmus test for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nearly three-year rule.

The outcome of the polls in which the SP and Congress have come together in the state for the first time are expected to be the bellwether for the next Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP is hoping to return to power in the state after 13 years while Mayawati's BSP, which fared the worst the last time around, hopes to stage a comeback.

The polling has so far been peaceful in the 15 districts of western Uttar Pradesh, some of which are sensitive.