BJP makes clean sweep in Varanasi, Gorakhpur; SP wins all seats in Azamgarh

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav saw their parties making a clean sweep in the assembly segments in their parliamentary constituencies.

The BJP and its allies won all assembly seats in Modi's Varanasi and Adityanath's Gorakhpur, and the SP bagged all 10 segments in Yadav's Azamgarh Lok Sabha constituency.

While Modi and Yadav are the current MPs from Varanasi and Azamgarh, Adityanath has won several times from Gorakhpur.

He vacated the parliamentary seat when he became chief minister in 2017.

The BJP and its ally Apna Dal-Sonelal won all eight assembly constituencies in Varanasi.

In Varanasi Cantonment, the BJP's Saurabh Srivastava defeated the SP's Pooja Yadav by 86,844 votes.

Party candidate Neel Ratan Singh won against Surendra Singh Patel (SP) in Sevapuri, Ravindra Jaiswal against Ashfaq (SP) in Varanasi North, Neelkanth Tiwari against Kameshwar Dixit (SP) in Varanasi South and Awadesh Kumar Singh against Babulal (Bahujan Samaj Party) in Pindra.

The BJP's Tribuwan Ram defeated Sunil Sonkar, who was contesting on the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party ticket, in Ajagara constituency. In Shivpur, Anil Rajbhar won against Arvind Rajbhar, another SBSP candidate.

In Rohaniya, Sunil Patel of BJP ally Apna Dal-Sonelal defeated Abhay Patel from rival faction Apna Dal-Kamerwadi.

In the 2017 state polls, Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party and Apna Dal-Sonelal candidates had won in Ajagara and Sevapuri, respectively.

Modi had held a massive road show in Varanasi and addressed his last rally in the district's Khajuri village.

In Adityanath's karamabhoomi Gorakhpur, the BJP won all nine assembly seats this time.

Adityanath himself won from Gorakhpur Urban while the BJP nominees trounced their rivals in Caimpiyarganj, Pipraich, Gorakhpur Rural, Sahajanwa, Khajani, Chauri Chaura, Bansgaon and Chillupar.

In 2017, the BJP had won eight of these nine seats with Vijay Shankar Tiwari of the BSP bagged the Chillupar seat.

The Samajwadi Party created history in Azamgarh by securing a win on all 10 assembly seats. Akhilesh Yadav himself had contested his maiden assembly election from Karhal in Mainpuri district.

The SP won Azamgarh Sadar, Atraulia, Nizamabad, Didarganj, Phoolpur Pawai, Mubarakpur, Lalganj, Gopalpur, Sagri and Mehnagar assembly constituencies.

Earlier, the SP's best performance in Azamgarh was in 2012, when it won nine out of 10 seats, losing Mubarkpur to the BSP. The party had also formed the government in the state then.

In 2017, the SP won only five seats in Azamgarh.