The ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh Wednesday retained the Handia assembly seat in Allahabad, defeating its nearest Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) rival by over 26,000 votes.
SP candidate Prashant Kumar Singh polled 81,655 votes while BSP's Pankaj Tripathi got 54,838 votes, election officials said.
The by-poll was necessitated after the death of SP legislator Mahesh Narayan Singh. The party fielded his son Prashant Singh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party came third with its nominee Sanvarey Lal Tiwari polling 3,809 votes and the Congress finished fourth with Amrit Lal Bind loosing his security deposit with just 2,880 votes.
