The Samajwadi Party swept the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad elections and this was a big boost for SP, which is gearing up for upcoming Assembly elections next year. On March 3, one lakh voters cast their votes at 729 polling booths. The elections recorded a high voter turnout of 97.22 per cent. Among the candidates SP fielded, there were 16 Yadavs, four Muslims, five Thakurs, one Jain and one Brahmin. No Dalit was fielded by SP.

The party won 23 out of the 28 contested seats and gained a majority in the 100-member Uttar Pradesh legislative council, with a total 58 seats in hand.

Ab ki baar, no sarkar

Bharatiya Janata Party won zero seats and grumbled that the elections were won with “money and muscle”. Not just that, the biggest embarrassment came to BJP when two candidates from Lucknow-Unnao and Banda-Hamipur withdrew their nominations and paved the way for SP candidates to be elected, unopposed. Both were expelled by BJP state president Laxmikant Bajpai on charges of indiscipline and disobeying the directives of the party. The party also claimed that the two men withdrew nominations after “taking money” from SP to give its candidates a walkover in the elections.

Rakesh Yadav of SP defeated Rajesh Singh of BJP in Mulayam Singh Yadav’s constituency in Azamgarh, while Banwari Singh Yadav of SP defeated Jitendra Yadav of BJP in Badaun. In Ballia, SP’s Ravishankar Singh (alias Pappu) defeated Anup Singh of BJP. Pappu is a close kin of former prime minister Chandrashekhar and his selection is seen as key to winning Rajput votes in the region for upcoming elections.

CP Chand, after being expelled from SP, was declared elected as an official SP candidate by the Election Commission because he’d been given a ticket before his expulsion. His victory is being celebrated as a dent in the fort of Yogi Adityanath and the saffron forces.

Special mentions

One of the most crucial results came from Raebareli, where Congress managed to retain this seat in Sonia Gandhi’s constituency. Congress had fielded only one candidate this year and SP had pinned its hopes on social activist and businessman Mukesh Bahadur Singh, who may or may not have been expelled from the party days before election. Singh thinks he’s still in the fold but he does admit he was forcefully debarred from party activities just days before the election.

SP candidate Ghanshyam Lodhi deserves a special mention for using the state chopper to ferry his election symbol and authorisation letter from Lucknow to Bareilly. He was later forced to cough up Rs 2.21 lakhs as charges to the state’s Civil Aviation Department.

Dabangg 3 in Varanasi

Mafia don Brijesh Singh, who has been jailed, won the elections as an Independent and defeated SP candidate Meena Singh in Varanasi. Brijesh’s brother Udaynath Singh (alias Chulbul) had won this seat twice on the BJP ticket. The seat has been with this family since 1997 when Chulbul was elected on a BJP ticket for the first time.

Brijesh was arrested in 2008, after absconding for about 20 years and facing charges in over two dozen criminal cases. He’s been accused of conspiring to kill Mayawati, suspected of working with Dawood Ibrahim and has generally given Gabbar Singh a run for his money over the past two decades.

Brijesh’s father was murdered in 1984 and he entered the world of crime to avenge his father’s killing. He didn’t stop after he’d given his father’s murderer a taste of his own medicine. In 1986, Brijesh was almost caught by the police when in the middle of a violent dispute, he sustained bullet injuries. Brijesh was admitted in hospital from where he managed to give the police the slip. He would go on to become one of UP’s most dreaded gangsters.

Brijesh won Varanasi an independent candidate.