The victory margin of as many as 40 candidates in the just-concluded UP Assembly elections was less than 5,000 votes, while several lost the election by less than 300 votes.
As per the election results announced by the Election Commission of India, 25 Samajwadi Party candidates were defeated by less than 5,000 votes while a similar fate awaited three candidates of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD). The SP and RLD contested the polls in alliance.
A total of 18 BJP candidates also lost the poll battle by less than 5,000 votes. Allies of the saffron party, Nishad Party and Apna Dal (Sonelal), had to face defeat by a small margin on two seats and one seat respectively.
The narrowest victory margin was registered in Dhampur, where BJP's Ashok Kumar Rana defeated SP's Naeem-ul-Hasan by 203 votes. BJP’s Sakendra Verma won the poll contest against SP’s Rakesh Verma at Kursi (Barabanki) by a meagre 217 votes.
Also, SP candidates in Aliganj, Aurai, Bahraich, Chhibramau, Etawah, Faridpur, Jalalabad, Bindki, Jalesar, Katra, Madhuban, Manikpur, Madiyahun, Mohammadi, Moradabad Nagar, Nakud, Phulpur, Salon, Shahganj, Shravasti, Sitapur, Sultanpur and Tirwa, lost by less than 5,000 votes. The victory margin in six of these seats was less than 1,000 votes.
Similarly, RLD candidates lost from Baraut, Nahtaur and Bijnor by 3,15,258 and 1,445 votes respectively. On the other hand, BJP’s Kamlesh Saini was defeated by SP’s Swami Omvesh at Chandpur by just 234 votes. The saffron party lost Ramnagar seat by 261 votes and the Isauli seat by 269 votes.
The margin of defeat for BJP candidates was less than 5,000 votes in Basti Sadar, Bhadohi, Bisauli, Dibiyapur, Dumariaganj, Ghazipur, Etawah, Jasrana, Kithor, Meja, Patiali, Farenda, Raniganj, Sareni and Zaidpur. The margin of loss was less than 1,000 votes in six of these seats.
The Nishad Party lost Handia and Kalpi seats to the SP by 3,543 and 2,816 votes respectively. Also an Apna Dal (S) nominee was defeated by the SP candidate from Bachhrawan by 2,812 votes.
The five biggest victory margins were registered by BJP candidates. While Sunil Kumar Sharma recorded a historic victory in Sahibabad (Ghaziabad) by a margin of 2.14 lakh votes, Pankaj Singh's victory margin in Noida was 1.81 lakh and Amit Agarwal polled 1.18 lakh votes more than his nearest rival in Meerut Cantonment.
Also, Purushottam Khandelwal and Srikant Sharma of the saffron party trounced their opponents by 1.12 lakh and 1.09 lakh votes from Agra North and Mathura seats respectively.
Of the 403 Assembly seats in UP, the BJP bagged 255, while its allies Apna Dal (S) got 12 and Nishad Party got six. The SP won 111 seats, while its ally RLD got eight seats and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) got six seats. The Congress and Jansatta Dal Loktantrik got two seats each and Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got a lone seat.
