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.

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