Candidates of the Samajwadi Party were surging ahead of their nearest BJP rivals in Gorakhpur and Phulpur constituencies in Uttar Pradesh after several rounds of counting for the parliamentary by-elections, officials said.
In the prestigious Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat, the home turf of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, BJP's Upendra Dutt Shukla was trailing behind Praveen Nishad of the SP by a margin of 14,668 votes at the end of 12th round of counting, consolidating his grip further.
In Phulpur, SP candidate Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel raced ahead of his nearest rival by 20,495 votes after 14th round of counting, officials said.
The bypolls were necessitated after Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats respectively, following their election to the state legislative council.
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