UP Legislative Council Results: Counting Underway Across 11 Seats

Lucknow, October 28: Vote counting for 11 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council is in progress, with the BJP and the Samajwadi Party locked in a tough race. The teachers' and graduates' constituency polls are being viewed as a key test of political momentum ahead of the state assembly elections. So far, the BJP has secured four seats, and the Samajwadi Party has won the Varanasi teachers' constituency.

Counting started at 8 a.m. on Tuesday at seven centres across the state. Security has been tightened at all locations, and the process is being monitored through CCTV cameras and videography. Polling for the 11 seats, spread across five graduates' and six teachers' constituencies, was held on October 23. A total of 152 candidates are in the fray, and the results depend on the ballots of roughly 14.81 lakh voters.

In the Meerut-Saharanpur division, the BJP won both the teachers' and graduates' seats. Shrichand Sharma took the teachers' seat with 18,099 votes, and Dinesh Goyal captured the graduates' seat with 24,928 votes.

The BJP also won the Bareilly-Moradabad teachers' constituency, where Dr. Hari Singh Dhillon was declared the winner. In Lucknow, Umesh Dwivedi retained the teachers' seat for a third consecutive term. Thanking voters and teachers, he credited the party, the prime minister, the chief minister and the party's workers for their support.

In Varanasi's teachers' constituency, Lal Bihari Yadav of the Samajwadi Party emerged as the winner. He claimed that the BJP's assertions of winning both seats had been proven wrong and said teachers had shown faith in Akhilesh Yadav. He also said the campaign led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had failed to influence voters.

Yadav accused the administration of harassing his supporters during the election, alleging house arrests and pressure to stay away from schools. The administration has not issued any official response to these charges yet.

The Agra teachers' constituency witnessed a dispute during counting. Samajwadi Party candidate Akash Agarwal alleged that he was attacked at the counting site and that his kurta was torn, blaming BJP supporters. Tension rose as supporters of both parties faced off. BJP workers denied the charges, saying Agarwal had torn the kurta himself, and staged a sit-in. Police Commissioner Deepak Kumar said both sides were making allegations of violence against each other, and the standoff continued at the venue.

In the Gorakhpur-Faizabad teachers' constituency, counting at Gorakhpur University's commerce department was boycotted by the Samajwadi Party. The party alleged that the democratic process was being compromised and that administrative officials and observers were allegedly trying to favour the BJP candidate. These claims have not been independently confirmed.

In the graduates' constituencies, the Samajwadi Party holds early advantages in some areas. Dr. Manosingh Yadav leads in the Allahabad-Jhansi constituency after five rounds of counting, and Kanti Singh has been ahead in Lucknow since the early stages. In Varanasi, counting of first preference votes has begun in a contest between Samajwadi Party's Ashutosh Sinha and BJP's Kedar Singh, with the result expected today.

Counting is continuing in the remaining constituencies. The complete picture for the BJP, the Samajwadi Party and other candidates will emerge only after the final results for all 11 seats are announced.