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.
Backed by other constituents of INDIA, the new opposition bloc, the SP retained the seat with Singh garnering 1,24,427 votes. Chauhan got 81,668 votes, according to the Election Commission (EC).
The bypoll was the first election in Uttar Pradesh since the formation of the group. "INDIA has started to win India, this is the victory for the future of the country," SP chief Akhilesh Yadav posted on 'X' after the results came in.
Another INDIA constituent the Aam Aadmi Party said the decline of the ruling BJP has now begun.
While the BSP, which has not aligned with the NDA or INDIA, kept itself away from the Ghosi bypoll, INDIA bloc constituents Congress, CPI(M), CPI, RLD, AAP, CPI(ML)-Liberation and the Suheldev Swabhiman Party extended support to Singh.
The bypoll was contested by 10 candidates, mostly independents. The voter turnout was 50.77 per cent.
Newly-elected MLA Sudhakar Singh, 64, had earlier represented the Ghosi constituency from 2012 to 2017. Earlier, he had represented the Nathupur (Madhuban after delimitation) assembly seat.
It was a bad bargain for Dara Singh Chauhan, who had quit the seat as an SP member and switched over to the saffron party.
The Ghosi bypoll was necessitated due to the resignation of Chauhan, who had won the seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. In the 1996 assembly elections, he had won Nathupur (Madhuban after delimitation) assembly seat on an SP ticket.
In the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, he had lost to the BJP's Fagu Chauhan from this assembly seat.
Expressing happiness over the SP candidate's victory, party chief and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said, "Our new formula for victory has proved successful. This is a result that shatters the ego and pride of the BJP."
Yadav credited the victory to the opposition alliance and his 'PDA' formula. The SP chief recently spelt out his "PDA formula" for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls as a combination of "Pichde (backward classes), Dalit and Alpasankhyak (minorities)".
"'INDIA is a team' and 'PDA' strategy: this new formula of ours has proved successful," he said, adding that Uttar Pradesh will once again lead a change of power in the country. "INDIA has started to win India, this is the victory for the future of the country," Yadav added.
He also said, "This has been a unique election in which one MLA won but a number of ministerial aspirants lost. In Ghosi, the broad mindset of the public has won."
In the 2022 polls, Chauhan defeated BJP candidate Vijay Kumar Rajbhar by a margin of 22,216 votes.
RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary in a post of 'X' said, "Thanks to the voters of Ghosi, Uttar Pradesh, for encouraging #INDIA by registering a big win! Congratulations to the candidate from Ghosi, Mr Sudhakar Singh, national president of Samajwadi Party, Mr Akhilesh Yadav."
Uttar Pradesh BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary accepted the defeat of the party candidate and said he respects the mandate of the people.
