MLC polls: BJP bags three of six teachers’ seats

LUCKNOW : The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won three of the six MLC seats under the teachers’ constituencies, ending the 50-year dominance of eighttime MLC and Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh president Om Prakash Sharma in Meerut but finishing in third place in Varanasi where the Samajwadi Party bagged the seat, according to the results announced by the Election Commission here on Friday. Two seats went to independents.

Besides Meerut, the BJP won the Lucknow and the BareillyMoradabad division teachers’ seats. The SP’s Varanasi win was its sole victory in the teachers’ constituencies. Two independents bagged the Agra and Gorakhpur teachers’ seats.

The counting of votes for the five MLC seats under the graduates’ constituencies was under way and the final results were expected by late evening, a spokesman for the Election Commission said. BJP candidates were maintaining the lead on most of the graduates’ seats as the counting was in progress.

The biennial elections to all the 11 seats—six teachers’ and five graduates’ — were held on December 1 after hectic campaigning by candidates and their parties.

As per the final results declared by the Election Commission, BJP’s Umesh Dwivedi

won the Lucknow division teachers’ seat, Shrichand Sharma the Meerut seat and Hari Singh Dhillon the BareillyMoradabad seat. SP’s Lal Bihari Yadav won the Varanasi seat. Akash Agrawal and Dhruv Kumar Tripathi, both independent candidates, won the Agra and Gorakhpur teachers’ seats.

This is first time that the BJP contested the Vidhan Parishad polls to the teachers’ constituencies on its symbol and won three seats to end the Sharma group’s traditional dominance in the upper house.

BJP’s Shrichand Sharma won the Meerut seat by defeating veteran teachers’ leader Om Prakash Sharma. Considered to be invincible, Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh president Om Prakash Sharma had been representing Meerut in the upper house for the last five decades. His defeat, it is said, may change the course of teacher politics in and outside the house.

Another important Sharma group leader Jagveer Kishore Jain lost the Agra seat after four consecutive wins.