BJP record win in both seats of Allahabad

ALLAHABAD: At a time when Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and its allies have secured an absolute majority in Lok Sabha, the victory lap was strengthened by the win of both the party candidates, Rita Bahuguna Joshi from Allahabad and Kesari Devi from Phulpur.


Postal ballot cast by the service personnel were counted on the outset - 2755 in Allahabad and 4732 in Phulpur, followed by EVMs.

The sealed strong room were opened in the presence of various party candidates and their agents.

BJP candidates maintain lead since the early stages and went on to consolidate the lead as the counting progressed.

In Allahabad Lok Sabha seat, Rita Bahuguna Joshi defeated her Mahagathbandhan rival R S Patel by around 1,83,876 votes. While Joshi secured 4,93,204 votes, Patel came second with 3,09,328 votes. Yogesh Shukla came third with 31,852 votes.

Rita Joshi maintained a steady lead in all the five assembly seats -- Allahabad South, Bara, Karchana, Meja and Koraon. She was able to make a dent in traditional votebank of the SP in Karchana and Meja assembly seats, where she gained substantially.

“We were confident of the win and it is the developmental schemes of the Modi-led government at the Centre, which has paved my way to victory. However, this also means people have a lot of expectation from me. One has to understand that what comes immediately could be relief but solutions will take time,” said Joshi.

In Phulpur Lok Sabha seat, Kesari Devi defeated her nearest rival Pandhari Yadav by a margin of 1,70,341 votes. Kesari secured around 5,39,920 votes while Yadav got around 3,69,579 votes. Pankaj Patel of the Congress party came at third position by securing 32452 votes.

In the earlier trends, Kesari Devi was leading by a margin under 5,000 but by the end of 9th round, she started consolidating her victory margin and finally she won the seat which she had lost to Ateeq Ahamad in 2004. She had contested from Phulpur in 2004 as BSP candidate.

Good news came from Kaushambi Lok Sabha seat, too, where the sitting MP Vinod Sonkar won the seat by a margin of 39,052 votes. Sonkar secured 3,81,492 votes while Indrajeet Saroj of the gathbandhan came second with 3,42,440 votes. Shailendra Kumar of the Jansatta Dal Loktantrik came third. This three time MP from this very seat managed to get 1,56,355 votes.

Although, Sonkar was not at a comfortable position as far as winnibility is considered but the public meeting of PM Modi on May 1, swung the mood of the voters. Over One lakh voters had turned on to hear Modi in which he held Jawahar Lal Nehru responsible for the stampede of 1954 Mahakumbh.