11 UP ministers fail to win their seats

Lucknow: As many as 11 ministers in the Yogi Adityanath government failed to win in the 2022 assembly elections, despite the BJP registering an impressive victory.

According to the Election Commission website, of the 402 seats the results of which were declared, BJP won 255. Its alliance partners Apna Dal (Sonelal) bagged 12 and NISHAD Party six.

Samajwadi Party has won 110 seats and was leading on one seat. Its ally RLD bagged eight seats and SBSP six. The Congress and Jansatta Dal Loktantrik led by Raghuraj Pratap Singh won one seat each and BSP got one.

Among the ministers who lost is outgoing deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya who lost to the Samajwadi Party’s Pallavi Patel by 7,337 votes in the Sirathu seat.

Patel is the vice-president of Apna Dal (K), a Samajwadi Party ally.

Sugarcane minister Suresh Rana lost the Thana Bhawan seat in Shamli district to the RLD’s Ashraf Ali Khan by over 10,000 votes.

Another minister, Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar, was defeated by Ataur Rehman of the Samajwadi Party on the Baheri seat in Bareilly district by 3,355 votes.

Rural development minister Rajendra Pratap Singh alias Moti Singh lost the Patti seat in Pratapgarh to the Samajwadi Party’s Ram Singh by 22,051 votes.

Chandrika Prasad Upadhyay, another minister in the Adityanath government, lost to Anil Kumar of the Samajwadi Party in Chitrakoot by 20,876 votes.

Anand Swaroop Shukla lost the Bariya seat in Ballia district to Samajwadi Party’s Jaiprakash Anchal by 12,951 votes. Shukla had last time contested from Ballia seat but was fielded from Bariya seat this time, replacing sitting MLA Surendra Singh.

State’s sports minister Upendra Tiwari lost the Phephna seat in Ballia to Samajwadi Party’s Sangram Singh by 19,354 votes. Minister Ranvendra Singh Dhunni was defeated by Usha Maurya of Samajwadi Party at Hussain Ganj seat in Fatehpur district by 25,181 votes.

Lakhan Singh Rajput was defeated by Pradeep Kumar Yadav of the Samajwadi Party on Dibiyapur seat in Auraiya district by 473 votes and the state’s basic education minister Satish Chandra Dwivedi was defeated by SP candidate and former speaker of the assembly Mata Prasad Pande at Itwa seat in Siddharthnagar district by 1,662 votes.

Another minister, Sangeeta Balwant was defeated by SP’s Jai Kishan at the Gazipur seat by 1,692 votes.