Kannauj:

A 50-year-old former politician has been arrested for allegedly trying to rape a minor girl in Kannauj on Monday, police said.

The incident has also led to a political row, with the BJP hitting out at the Samajwadi Party with the claim that the accused was once a close affiliate of senior party leader Dimple Yadav, when she was the Lok Sabha MP from Kannauj.

The SP, however, has distanced itself from the row, saying the accused, Nawab Singh Yadav, is no longer a party worker.

Kannauj Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar Anand said, “Around 1.30 am, a call was received at the UP 112 service in which the girl alleged that she was undressed and a rape attempt was made.”

The girl, along with her aunt, had gone to meet the accused, who had called them on the pretext of securing a job for her, the officer said.

In her complaint, the girl said Yadav tried to force himself on her when her aunt had gone to the bathroom. But once she came back and saw Yadav in his innerwear, they immediately called 112, according to the police.

“Taking cognisance of the call, the local police and PRV teams immediately reached the spot. The girl was rescued and the accused, who was in an objectionable condition, taken into custody,” SP Anand said.

“On the basis of the complaint, an FIR has been lodged under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the POCSO Act. The accused has been arrested and further legal proceedings are underway,” he told reporters.

Meanwhile, launching a scathing attack on the Samajwadi Party, UP BJP spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi sought to equate the Kannauj incident with that of a recent Ayodhya rape case involving a minor girl.

Mr Tripathi said, “Nawab Singh Yadav is not only a small leader of SP, but he has also been (former) MP Dimple Yadav’s representative.”

“Samajwadi Party has always covered up such crimes under the policy that boys are boys and they make mistakes (‘ladke hai, ladko se galti ho jaati hai“). First, it was Moid Khan of Ayodhya and Nawab Yadav of Kannauj. This is the real character of the SP, ” he said.

When contacted, Samajwadi Party’s Kannauj unit president Kaleem Khan said Yadav is not a member of the party.

“It’s his individual matter and the Samajwadi Party has nothing to do with it,” Khan added.

On July 30, the police in UP’s Ayodhya district had arrested Moid Khan, who ran a bakery in Ayodhya district’s Bhadarsa Nagar, and his employee Raju Khan, in connection with the rape of a minor girl.

In a statement in the Assembly on August 1, UP CM Yogi Adityanath said, “Moid Khan is from the Samajwadi Party and is a member of the Ayodhya (Faizabad) MP’s team. He has been found involved in the rape of a 12-year-old girl. The Samajwadi Party has not taken any action against him.”

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had urged the court to order protection for the Ayodhya rape survivor and said people trying to “politicise” the case must not be allowed to succeed.

Mr Yadav had also alleged that the BJP was rattled after its defeat in Lok Sabha elections, especially in Ayodhya. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

There was a stampede-like situation at an election rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh Tuesday that was headlined by Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav. The chaos erupted after the former UP Chief Minister arrived at the event, with over-eager party workers and supporters jostling with each other, and climbing over wooden barriers, to see Mr Yadav.

As the jostling and shoving escalated, not helped at points by unruly sections, the meeting devolved into bedlam. This was the third time a rally led by Mr Yadav has ended in disorder.

Visuals from the scene today showed carnage at a fair ground in the town of Saraymeer, with broken chairs and torn streamers littering the ground, prompting the police to step in and try and control the situation. The cops had to resort to a lathi charge to do so.

During the chaos Mr Yadav and others, including leaders from the INDIA opposition bloc, remained on stage and appealed, in vain, for the supporters and workers to calm down. The appeals, unfortunately, had no effect. Eventually, though, police restored a measure of order and Mr Yadav addressed the crowd.

The public rally was being held for the SP candidate in the Lalganj Lok Sabha seat, which Mr Yadav’s party is trying to win for the first time since Daroga Prasad’s 2004 success. 

संतकबीरनगर में उमड़ा ये जनसमर्थन बता रहा है कि भाजपा के विरुद्ध उठा ये जन सैलाब भाजपा के काग़ज़ी कामों और झूठे वादों की कश्ती डुबो देगा।

जनता ‘इंडिया गठबंधन’ से जिस उम्मीद और भरोसे से जुड़ रही है, हम उसका मान रखेंगे।

जनता छठे चरण में भाजपा की भरपूर छँटाई कर देगी।… pic.twitter.com/CfX8SxrWjC

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) May 21, 2024

In 2019 the seat was won by Sangeeta Azad from Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party.

In this election Daroga Prasad has been fielded (as the joint INDIA bloc candidate) by the Samajwadi Party against the BJP’s Neelam Sonkar and the BSP’s Indu Chaudhry.

The Lalganj seat will vote in the sixth phase – on May 25.

This is not the first time chaos has visited one of Mr Yadav’s rallies in this election.

Earlier this week a rally in Prayagraj’s Phulpur had to be cancelled, leaving Mr Yadav and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who was also on stage, free for an impromptu on-stage chat.

READ | Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav Chat On Stage As Rally Scrapped Over Chaos

Mr Yadav and Mr Gandhi had to abandon plans for another joint election meeting, each without delivering their speeches. Sources said supporters broke through barricades trying to reach the dais at the rally.

READ | Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav Leave Rally Without Speech. Here’s Why

UP is a key battleground as the BJP bids for a third consecutive term in power. The state – dominated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party in the last two general elections and intervening state polls – sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, by far the most of any state.

According to the seat-sharing agreement between the two parties, the Samajwadi Party is contesting 63 seats while the Congress is contesting 17.

The state has voted in every phase so far and will vote in the sixth and seventh phases too.

The results will be out on June 4.

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Bhadohi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the Samajwadi Party and the Congress are trying out “Trinamool politics” in Uttar Pradesh, terming it the politics of appeasement and harassment of Dalits and women.

Attacking the INDIA bloc partners at an election rally in Bhadohi, where the opposition has fielded a Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate, PM Modi said they were conducting a trial of West Bengal’s “TMC politics” in Uttar Pradesh.

“It is difficult for the Samajwadi Party and Congress to even save their deposit, so they are doing a political experiment in Bhadohi,” he said.

“Trinamool Congress politics means the murder of Hindus, harassment of Dalits and adivasis, and atrocities on women. So many BJP leaders were killed there and Trinamool MLAs say that they will kill Hindus by drowning them in the river Ganga,” PM Modi said.

“You know the kind of politics the TMC does in West Bengal,” the Prime Minister said.

The PM said the party’s politics included a “poisonous arrow of appeasement”, calling Ram temple “impure”, banning Ramnavami celebrations, sheltering Bangladeshi intruders and “vote jihad” – a term used by a Samajwadi Party candidate.

Under the previous Samajwadi Party government in the state, terrorists got special treatment and the government was kind towards the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Lucknow:

The Samajwadi Party on Wednesday indicated that it will contest on 65 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in 2024.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, who attended a meeting of the party’s state executive committee in Lucknow, called upon party workers to make full preparations to remove the BJP from power in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

“This election will decide the future of coming generations. It will be the last election to save democracy and the Constitution. Party workers should make full preparations to remove the BJP from power in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” Mr Yadav was quoted as having told the state executive meet at the party headquarters.

The Samajwadi Party, which is the main constituent of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) of opposition parties, also indicated that it will contest on 65 seats leaving the remaining to its allies.

SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary, while confirming that the party president has given indications of the party contesting on 65 seats, said that he has asked for making preparations for all the 80 seats.

“Yadav has asked party workers to remain vigilant at the booth level to prevent the BJP from coming to power,” Mr Chaudhary told PTI.

Asked whether the Samajwadi Party will be a part of the INDIA bloc in the parliamentary elections amid the strained relations between it and the Congress over seat sharing for the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls, Mr Chaudhary said, “There is an alliance for the Lok Sabha elections, that is certain.” According to party spokesman Faqrul Hasan Chand, Yadav told the party cadre that the SP is the biggest party in the state and had got 35 per cent vote share in the recent assembly elections and is also a part of the INDIA alliance. Therefore, the SP will contest on 65 of the 80 seats while leaving the rest for its allies.

During the last Lok Sabha elections, the SP, which had entered into an alliance with the BSP, also left three seats for the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). The RLD had contested the recent assembly elections with the SP and is still a part of the SP-led alliance.

Just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the SP and the BSP had cobbled together an alliance in which the BSP contested 38 seats and the SP 37.

The alliance had left two seats for the Congress — Rae Bareli and Amethi — and did not field their candidates there.

In his address, Mr Yadav cautioned the BJP government will try to influence the elections by misusing the administration.

Stressing that his party will expose the anti-people policies of the BJP, he said the Samajwadi Party is not afraid of BJP’s conspiracies and malicious actions.

“People are looking at the Samajwadi Party as an alternative. BJP is implicating Samajwadi Party workers in false cases. The public is watching everything, they will remove BJP from power in 2024,” he said.

The Samajwadi Party has been fighting for social justice for a long time and the conduct of a caste census is very important to take this fight forward, he said.

Only through this census will everyone get their rights and respect, he said, adding that the BJP was against holding a caste census.

The release said that in the state executive meeting of Samajwadi Party Uttar Pradesh, the political situation of the state, party organization and election strategy were discussed.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Hardoi, UP:

The Congress should not “betray” the Samajwadi Party and should make it clear if they want an alliance or not, SP president Akhilesh Yadav said on Saturday, amid a spat between the two INDIA bloc allies over their failure to arrive at a seat-sharing arrangement for the Madhya Pradesh assembly polls.
He, however, hinted the Congress leadership has approached him over the issue.

“I received a message from someone through the senior-most leader of the Congress party. If he is saying something, I will have to follow. He gave some message,” Akhilesh Yadav said, without revealing any name or explaining further. “But one thing I want to say is: why did they call us if they did not want an alliance?” This came a day after the SP chief had said his party leaders wouldn’t have answered calls from the Congress for a meeting in Madhya Pradesh had he known that the INDIA bloc was confined to the national level.

Speaking to reporter here on the sidelines of a party function on Saturday, Mr Yadav said the Congress party should “tell us if they want to have an alliance or not”.

“Do not conspire against us, don’t betray us. They should tell us straight that they don’t need Samajwadis. I promise you that we will not talk about alliance even once and will begin preparation to defeat the BJP on our own,” he said.

“If there were to be no alliance why were we called? They should have told us that there will be no alliance at the state level and the alliance will be formed in the Lok Sabha election,” Mr Yadav added.

On Thursday also, Akhilesh Yadav had expressed unhappiness over the Congress not allocating any seat to the SP despite talks on seat-sharing in MP and suggested that the Congress could get the same treatment from his party in Uttar Pradesh.

The SP chief had said his party leaders wouldn’t have answered calls from the Congress for a meeting in Madhya Pradesh had he known that the INDIA alliance was confined to the national level. “I must have got confused,” he had told reporters.

Hitting back, Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Rai said on Friday that Yadav cannot blame the Congress as the SP released its list of candidates before his party and was benefitting the BJP by contesting separately.

However, the SP president reiterated that the INDIA bloc should have clarified that there would be no tie-up in the state elections.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) announced its third list of two candidates on Thursday night. With this, it has announced 33 candidates for the November 17 polls to the 230-member assembly in the BJP-ruled state. The Congress has announced its candidates for 229 seats.

According to insiders from both parties, the Congress had agreed to leave six seats for the SP in MP but the arrangement did not materialise.

The INDIA grouping came into being primarily to put up a united front against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan took a dig at the INDIA bloc after its constituents fielded candidates against each other in assembly polls, saying the opposition grouping is driven by the motto of “friendship in Delhi and wrestling in states”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bhopal:

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced its second list of 22 candidates for the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh amid strained ties with its INDIA grouping ally Congress over the formation of alliance in the state.

The SP announced its second list late on Wednesday night. It has, thus, announced 31 candidates for the November 17 elections to the 230-member assembly of the BJP-ruled state.

The Congress released its first list of 144 candidates on Sunday and is likely to declare nominees for remaining seats on Friday, sources said.

Among others, the SP has nominated Shivangi Yadav from Prithvipur constituency in Niwari district. Its first list featured her mother and former MLA Meera Yadav who has been fielded from the Niwari constituency in the district.

Shamshul Hasan was nominated from Narela, Shama Tanveer from Bhopal Central and Rahul Maran (Rawat) from Huzur. All three seats are in Bhopal district.

The process of filing of nomination papers will start from October 21.

On Thursday, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said his party leaders would not have answered calls from the Congress for a meeting in Madhya Pradesh had he known that the INDIA alliance was confined to the national level.

“….the manner in which the Samajwadi Party was treated, they (Congress) will get to see the same treatment here (in Uttar Pradesh),” he said.

In the 2018 Madhya Pradesh elections, the SP had won one seat (Bijawar in Bundelkhand region) and finished second on five, securing 1.3 per cent votes in alliance with the tribal Gondwana Gantantra Party.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Bhopal:

The togetherness of the INDIA bloc has acquired a question mark against it, with the Congress and Samajwadi Party fielding candidates against each other on five seats in Madhya Pradesh. State Congress chief Kamal Nath said while the focus of the Opposition alliance is on the Lok Sabha elections, it would have been good if the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election could have been a contested as a bloc.

The Congress released the first list of 144 candidates on the first day of Navratri at the “auspicious hour” of 9.09 am. But it appeared that the Samajwadi Party present found it inauspicious, because it waited another 8 hours to release the names of its candidates.

Both Congress and the Samajwadi Party have fielded candidates on five seats — Bhander (Scheduled Caste seat), Rajnagar, Bijawar, Chitrangi (Scheduled Caste) ST and Katangi.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “The Congress should decide whether they want an alliance at the state level or national level. If they don’t want an alliance at the state level, then in future there will be no alliance on state level”.

Kamal Nath said talks are still on with the SP and Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party at the Centre. “We want the SP to help us defeat the BJP. I thank Akhilesh Yadav, as he aims to defeat the BJP. He told this to me personally”.

The “local situation” in Madhya Pradesh, he added, is proving a challenge.

“There are practical glitches due to local situations. Our candidates aren’t ready to fight on the SP poll symbol, even if the SP says it is ready to field our candidates on its symbol. In such a situation, what shall we do? These are practical aspects on the ground,” he said.

In 2018, the SP had won one seat (Bijawar in Bundelkhand region) and finished second on five other seats, securing 1.30 per cent votes in alliance with tribal centric Gondwana Gantantra Party.

The party’s vote share in alliance with the GGP was even less than the Independents, who got 5.82 per cent votes.

SP’s only MLA Rajesh Shukla defeated the BJP candidate by over 36,000 votes. The Congress was a distant third on that seat. Mr Shukla, however, joined the BJP before the 2022 Presidential polls.

The five SP candidates, who finished second in 2018 polls, included Dr Shishupal Yadav (Prithvipur), ex-MLA Meera Deepak Yadav (Niwari), ex-MLA Kankar Munjare (Paraswada) his wife Anubha Munjare (Balaghat) and Kapidwaj Singh (Gurh).

This time, the entry of AAP in Madhya Pradesh will also change some equations.

AAP has some grassroot support – the party scored big in the civic elections and has a mayor, 52 councilors, 118 Sarpanches, 10 District Panchayats and 25 district members. Having received 6 per cent votes in the civic elections, it can make a dent in the votes of Congress-BJP on at least 51 seats.

While the main contest will be between the BJP and the Congress, this time, the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will contest on 230 seats, due to which competition will be tough on at least 100 seats.

The GGP has its base in tribal regions like Mahakaushal and Baghelkhand, whereas the BSP’s voter base is good in Gwalior-Chambal, Bundelkhand and Vindhya.

The BSP is contesting on 178 seats and GGP on 52 seats. In 2018, the BSP got more than 30,000 votes on 18 seats, while the GGP got more than 30,000 votes on six seats.

Last time, the BSP got about 5 per cent votes. The results were affected due to BSP in 28 seats. The GGP had got around 2 per cent votes, which affected the results on 9 seats.

Last time, the BSP had won on two seats and was second on 6 seats.
GGP was second on two seats.

There are 21 per cent tribal and 15 per cent Dalit voters in the state.
This alliance on 82 reserved seats can tweak the equation for the BJP and the Congress.

In the last elections, BJP got 41.02 per cent votes and the Congress 40.89 per cent votes.

Israeli armored personnel carriers head toward the border with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, October 15, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

One million Gazans displaced in a week, says UN as Israel readies for ground attack

More than one million people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip in the last week, the UN said Sunday, after sustained Israeli bombardment and warnings about a ground attack targeting Hamas commanders.

Seven days of relentless bombing targeting those who masterminded the attack have flattened neighbourhoods and left at least 2,670 people dead in the Gaza Strip, the majority ordinary Palestinians.

Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls | SP says it will contest the election in alliance with Congress

The Samajwadi Party and the Congress, both members of the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), have worked out a seat-sharing agreement for the upcoming Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. On Sunday, SP leaders expressed confidence that an INDIA bloc government led by the Congress would be formed in the State.

Congress won’t repeat 30% of Rajasthan MLAs, says party’s State chief

The Congress is likely to replace up to 30% of its sitting MLAs in the coming Rajasthan Assembly election, the party’s State unit president, Govind Singh Dotasra, told The Hindu on Sunday.

Mr. Dotasra mocked the BJP for fielding “failed” MPs in the Assembly election to deflect an anti-incumbency trend against the Union government ahead of the Lok Sabha election in 2024.

BJP MP accuses Mahua Moitra of ‘taking cash to ask questions’

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey complained to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday that Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra had allegedly taken bribes from a business house to ask questions in Parliament.

Ms. Moitra denied the allegations and urged the Speaker to first complete the “probe” into Mr. Dubey’s educational qualifications and then hold an investigation into the allegations against her.

New investment slowed again in Q2 of FY24, drops by 13%

Fresh investment announcements in the July-to-September quarter, the second quarter of 2023-24, have dropped to ₹6.9 lakh crore, 13% lower than the first quarter, and 21.5% down from a year ago, driven by a sharp dip in proposed outlays by the Union government and foreign investors, and a broad-based contraction across the manufacturing, mining, infrastructure, and electricity sectors.

ICC World Cup: ENG vs AFG | Gritty Afghanistan leaves England shellshocked

In the past, Afghanistan has let teams like India and Pakistan off the hook in the World Cup. The gritty fighters, with a display of fearless trading of wickets for quick runs, have often paid the price for their inexperience in dealing with the ‘big’ moments of the game.

SC to hear AAP leader Raghav Chadha’s plea against ‘indefinite’ suspension from Rajya Sabha

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on October 16 a plea moved by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha, challenging his indefinite suspension from the Rajya Sabha.

A bench of Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices J. B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is scheduled to hear the plea of Mr. Chadha, who was suspended on the last day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament on August 11 for “gross violation of rules, misconduct, defiant attitude and contemptuous conduct”, pending a report by the privileges committee.

Study estimates count of UAVs required for the three Services

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Anil Chauhan recently ordered two studies to be conducted on major military platforms used by all three services. According to defence sources these platforms are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and armoured helicopters. The study on UAVs has since been completed with a recommendation to acquire 31 MQ-9B High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) UAVs and 155 Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAVs.

UN aid chief says six months of war in Sudan has killed 9,000 people

Six months of war between Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary group has killed up to 9,000 people and created “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history,” the United Nations humanitarian chief said Sunday.

Centre may raise retirement age of scientists from 60 to 65

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) is working on a proposal to increase the retirement age of scientists to 65.

Its larger purpose, sources suggest, is to stem the flight of its top, senior scientists to universities and the Indian Institutes of Technology, where the retirement age is 65, The Hindu has learnt.

Railways comes up with innovations to tackle freezing of water in winter

The process of linking Kashmir to Kanyakumari through the new Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link (USBRL) project posed a unique challenge to the Indian Railways — that of maintaining water and fuel in liquid form in sub-zero temperatures during the freezing winters of the north. To circumvent the problem of water freezing in toilets and in fuel tanks, engineers at the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) in Kapurthala have designed and implemented indigenous innovations.

Kaziranga reopens with tribute to British-era officer

The Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve reopened on Sunday with a literary tribute to a British-era forest officer who rid its name of any hunting connotations.

Poland’s opposition leader says three parties have enough votes to unseat the Law and Justice party

Polish opposition leader Donald Tusk said that three opposition parties had sufficient votes to win the general election on Sunday after an exit poll projected that they had enough combined support to oust Law and Justice, the governing conservative nationalist party.

Mathura:

Uttar Pradesh Police in a joint operation have arrested three persons, including a Samajwadi Party leader from Mathura, accused of running an alleged cybercrime racket under the guise of a public service centre.

Samajwadi Party leader Munna Malik and two associates Kamaruddin and Ravi have been arrested, according to the police.

SSP Shailesh Kumar Pandey said, “Munna Malik’s associate Ravi used to operate a cyber cafe and public service centre, which used to make polymer impressions of the Aadhar card and thumb of the visiting customers and give it to interstate cyber criminals and ration dealers.”

“Police had been receiving information for a long time that incidents of fake Aadhaar cards and cyber crimes were being carried out through Jan Seva Kendra. City Kotwali Police and SWAT team took action and arrested SP leader Councilor Munna Malik as well as Kamaruddin. Ravi has been arrested and sent to jail. The police have recovered fake coins, a letter pad, a laptop, 40 copies of Aadhaar cards, about 140 duplicate thumb impressions, two thumb readers, an ATM swipe machine and cash,” said Shailesh Kumar Pandey.

They also used these Aadhaar cards to provide fake SIM cards to cyber criminals and to make fake passports.

“A large number of Aadhaar cards have been purchased and they have been used to commit cyber fraud incidents, the police will soon arrest other people associated with this gang,” added the police.

A case has been registered and further investigation is underway.

More information awaited.

 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Lucknow:

Samajwadi Party candidate Sudhakar Singh on Friday defeated his BJP rival Dara Singh Chauhan in the Ghosi assembly bypoll in Uttar Pradesh with a margin of 42,759 votes, an official said.

The SP retained the seat with Sudhakar Singh garnering 1,24,427 votes. Dara Chauhan got 81,668 votes, according to the Election Commission (EC).

The counting of votes for the bypoll, which is being seen as the first major electoral clash between the ruling NDA and the INDIA opposition bloc, began at 8 am.

The fate of the 10 candidates in the fray was sealed by the voters on Tuesday. A voter turnout of 50.77 per cent was recorded in Ghosi, which falls in Mau district.

The Ghosi bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of Dara Chauhan, who won the seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, from the SP in July. He returned to the BJP and was fielded by the party in the bypoll.

In the 2022 state Assembly polls, Dara Chauhan had defeated BJP candidate Vijay Kumar Rajbhar by a margin of 22,216 votes.

In the bypoll, Dara Chauhan was supported by NDA constituents Apna Dal (Sonelal), Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal (NISHAD) Party and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), a former SP ally.

On the other hand, some INDIA bloc constituents — Congress, CPI(M), CPI, RLD, AAP, CPI(ML)-Liberation and Suheldev Swabhiman Party — extended support to Sudhakar Singh.

The bypoll will have no bearing on the BJP government, which enjoys a comfortable majority in the 403-member state Assembly. However, its outcome could be an indicator of what is in store for the 2024 Lok Sabha election for the INDIA bloc.

Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to the 543-member Lok Sabha.

The Ghosi bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of Dara Singh Chauhan, who had won the seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, from the Samajwadi Party in July. He switched over to the BJP and was fielded by the party in the bypoll.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)