Setback in Modi's stronghold; SP MLC candidate wins Varanasi constituency, big upset in Agra

LUCKNOW: Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a major setback in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Samajwadi Party secured victories in Varanasi—Modi's constituency—as well as in the Agra Teachers' constituency. BJP managed to retain four seats, including two in Meerut, the Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers' seat, and the Lucknow Teachers' seat.

In the Meerut-Saharanpur Graduates' constituency, the incumbent BJP MLC, Dinesh Goyal, retained his seat by defeating SP candidate Pramod Singh Bhatia by 12,855 votes. The BJP's Srichand Sharma also retained the Meerut Teachers' constituency, defeating SP candidate Nitin Tomar by 13,241 votes.

In the Bareilly-Moradabad Teachers' constituency, the BJP's Hari Singh Dhillon retained his seat by defeating the SP candidate, Haji Mohammad Danish Akhtar. In the Lucknow Teachers' constituency, incumbent MLC Umesh Dwivedi defeated the SP candidate, Sushil Kumar. Meanwhile, the SP's incumbent MLC, Lal Bihari Yadav, retained the Varanasi Teachers' constituency by defeating the BJP candidate, Pramod Mishra, by approximately 4,900 votes.

Samajwadi Party candidate Akash Agarwal created an upset in the Agra Teachers' constituency by defeating BJP candidate Hari Kishore Tiwari. Agarwal had previously won in 2020 while contesting as an independent candidate.

MLCs are members of the upper house of a state legislature. Some states in India have a bicameral legislature (two houses). Elections were held on the 23rd for five constituencies reserved for graduates and six constituencies for teachers. The general public does not have the right to vote in these constituencies.