Election 2022 Result LIVE: Yogi thanks 25 crore people of Uttar Pradesh for 'blessings'

Highlights of CM Yogi Adityanath's victory speech: 

* This huge majority is the blessings of 25 crore people of Uttar Pradesh for the BJP's model of nationalism, development and good governance. I accept this blessing. 

* Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP is going to form a thumping majority government in four states. The people have again blessed the development and good governance agenda of the Prime Minister in these four states. I congratulate the Prime Minister and other leaders.
 

Latest trends at 14:30 

BJP: 276
SP: 120
BSP: 4
Cong: 2
Others: 1

BJP captures all five assembly seats of Mathura. Celebrations among BJP supported people. People supported by BJP raised slogans by tying bulldozers on their heads. BJP is heading towards a thumping majority in the trends. Now trends are slowly getting converted into seats.

Reacting to the people's verdict, BJP MP Hema Malini said, "We already knew that our government is going to be formed. We have worked from every developmental aspect. That's why people believed in us. Nothing can come before a bulldozer because within minutes it can destroy anything, be it a cycle or whatever."

A vote share analysis of Uttar Pradesh at the moment shows how the BJP has been able to sweep 42 per cent of the votes in India's most populous state followed by the Samajwadi Party which has a 31.6 per cent vote share.

BJP is leading in Unnao's six assembly seats.

BJP candidate Ashutosh Shukla is leading over SP candidate Ankit Parihar by 10,000 votes in the Bhagwantnagar assembly seat. At the same time, the lead difference in the remaining seats ranges from 1000 to 1500 votes. 

Congress candidate Asha Singh, mother of the Delhi rape victim Nirbhaya, has got 90 votes so far.

Trends from Bareilly 

* Bahedi 
BJP's Chhatrapal Gangwar - 2376 votes 
SP's Ataur Rehman - 4296 votes 
State Revenue Minister is trailing

* Bhojipura 
BJP's Bahoran Lal - 2841 votes 
SP's Shahjil Islam - 3541 votes 
SP ahead by 700 votes 

* Nawabganj 
BJP's Dr MP Arya - 4778 votes
SP's Bhagwat Saran Gangwar - 2068 votes 
BJP ahead by 2710 votes 

* Faridpur 

BJP's Professor Shyam Bihari - 5011 votes 
SP's Vijay Pal Singh - 2809 votes 
BJP ahead by 2202 votes 

* Bithari Chainpur 

BJP's Dr Raghuvendra Sharma - 2711 botes 
SP's Agam Maurya - 4099 votes 
SP ahead by 1388 votes 

* Bareilly city 
BJP's Dr Arun Kumar - 4193 votes 
SP's Rajesh Agarwal - 1981 votes
BJP ahead by 2212 votes 

* Bareilly Cantt 
BJP's Sanjeev Agarwal - 4716 votes 
SP's Supriya Aron -- 1071 votes

* Anwala
BJP's Dharampal Singh - 2330 
SP's RK Sharma - 5059 votes 
BJP behind by 2729 votes
 

Let's take a look at the party positions in the temple town of Ayodhya where the second round of counting is in progress.

* BJP is leading in four assembly segments and SP ahead in one. 

* SP's Abhay Singh is leading by 912 votes in the second round in the Gosaiganj assembly seat

* In Ayodhya assembly seat, BJP's Ved Gupta is leading by 2100 votes 

* Baba Gorakhnath of the BJP leads in Milkipur assembly seat

* Ramchandra Yadav of the BJP leading by 2000 from Rudauli assembly 

* BJP's Amit Chauhan is ahead by 7300 votes from Bikapur seat

After three rounds of counting in Etawah

Sadar 
BJP - 8440 votes 
SP - 10,331 votes 
BSP - 4848 votes 

Bhartana 

SP - 10,696 votes 
BJP -10,349 votes 
BSP - 1961 votes 

Jaswantnagar 

SP - 14,717 votes 
BJP - 6,160 votes 
BSP - 1570 votes

Leading trends at 10:44

BJP: 308
SP: 85
BSP: 3
Cong: 3
Others: 4

Yogi Adityanath leading by 32000 votes from Gorakhpur

At Varanasi's Shivpur segment, the trend looks like this after round 1. 

Samajwadi Party: 3118 
BJP: 4089 
Congress: 101 
BSP: 1094 

Arvind Rajbhar, son of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party national president Omprakash Rajbhar, is trailing
 

Updates from Aligarh (after first round)

Barauli 
BJP ahead, BSP at number two 

Khair
BJP ahead, BSP in second place 

Kol
BJP ahead, SP in second place

Meerut 

BJP's Sangeet Som maintains his big lead, He had received 8181 votes so far, SP's Atul Pradhan at number two position 1212 votes at number two..

Lakhimpur Kheri

BJP ahead in Sadar assembly segment 

BJP ahead in Gola assembly 

BJP ahead from Nighasan assembly 

BJP ahead from Dhaurahara assembly 

Samajwadi Party ahead from Mohammadi assembly 

Samajwadi Party ahead from Kasta assembly 

BJP from Srinagar Assembly. 

BJP ahead on 5, Samajwadi Party leading on 3.

As per latest data being made available, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is leading by a margin of 4500 votes.

Meanwhile, more trends are coming in from Amethi

BJP's Chandra Prakash Matiyari is leading by 3265 votes 

SP's Rakesh Pratap Singh is leading by 2508 votes 

Congress party's Fateh Bahadur is leading by 435 votes 

BSP's Ram Lakhan Shukla is leading by 420 votes

Early trends from Lucknow

BJP's Ashutosh Tandon leads from Lucknow East

Brijesh Pathak of BJP leads from Lucknow Cantt.

Ravidas Mehrotra of SP leads from Lucknow Central;

Gomti Yadav of SP leads from Bakshi Ka Talab;

Jaya Devi leading from Lucknow's Malihabad.

Leading trends at 09:05

BJP: 196
SP: 113
BSP: 7
Cong: 4
Others: 3

Clearly, BJP in the driver's seat at the moment in Uttar Pradesh

Uttar Pradesh Minister Mohsin Raza has claimed that when the results come, it will be clear that we are bringing seats beyond 300. The work done by the Uttar Pradesh government in the state is unprecedented, as a result of which people have blessed us. After a while, the picture will become clear.

Here is a cryptic Twitter post from Deputy Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, perhaps, based on initial round of counting of votes. 

He tweets: "People are winning, hooliganism is losing"

जनता जीत रही है गुंडागर्दी हार रही है

— Keshav Prasad Maurya (@kpmaurya1) March 10, 2022

Strict monitoring at the counting site at Mandi. 

Leaders and candidates of political parties started arriving at the counting venue. 

SP leaders and BSP leaders entered the polling booth in Mandi. The police has been keeping a watch on the people coming and going. 

Counting of votes for 5 assembly seats of Mathura is taking place today. The fate of 55 candidates has to be decided.
 

Interestingly, the initial trends that are coming in from western Uttar Pradesh are in favour of the BJP.

However, mind you, these are just postal votes.

Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra has denied allegations of EVM tampering. 

He says, "EVMs are being continuously used since 2004. In 2019, we have started using VVPAT at every polling booth. EVMs are sealed in the presence of political party agents." 

"The questions raised on an EVMs in Varanasi was meant for training purpose. The ADM's mistake was that he did not inform political parties about the movement of EVMs for training purposes as per standard operating procedure" the Chief Election Commissioner added.

The counting of votes will start in Ayodhya shortly. There are 14 tables arranged assembly wise. The counting of votes will be completed in 34 rounds. Ayodhya result will come first. Counting will be held in 30 rounds in Ayodhya, 31 rounds in Bikapur and Rudauli, 33 rounds in Milkipur and 34 rounds in Gosaiganj. The first trend is expected at 9 am. The fate of 46 candidates will be decided by this evening.

According to media reports, there is a possibility of violence in Uttar Pradesh districts on counting day. 

Citing Home ministry intel, media reports said that there could be violence in around 17 districts of the state.

The alert also warns of arson, sabotage and disturbance during the counting of votes.

Tight security arrangements have been made at election counting booths in Uttar Pradesh.

Another delegation of the Samajwadi Party leaders led by party state president Naresh Uttam Patel Landed up at the State Election Commission office in Lucknow late Wednesday night after postal ballot papers were recovered from a BDO vehicle going towards the strong room in Azamgarh. 

The BDO vehicle going towards the Azamgarh strong room was intercepted and checked. It was then that the postal ballot papers were recovered. 

The SP leaders gave a memorandum about the Azamgarh incident and asked the Election Commission to conduct fair counting of votes and not let India's democracy be tarnished.

आज़मगढ़ में वाराणसी नम्बर की स्कार्पियो गाड़ी से 10000 सादा बैलेट पेपर पकड़ा गया। लाइट बन्द कर स्ट्रॉंग रूम के अंदर जा रही गाड़ी को गेट पर मुस्तैद कार्यकर्ताओं ने दबोचा।

ढोंगी प्रशासन खाली बैलेट पेपर मतगणना केंद्रों के अंदर क्यों घुसाना चाह रहा है? @ECISVEEP कहाँ है? pic.twitter.com/ppUY7MtR7L

— Rashtriya Janata Dal (@RJDforIndia) March 9, 2022

Samajwadi Party has once again levelled EVM rigging allegations 

The party took to Twitter to claim that beeping sound of Electronic Voting Machines was heard from inside the Mirzapur EVM strong room.

Claiming that this exposed serious fraud and conspiracy, the Samajwadi Party has asked the Election commission for an explanation and demanded strict action.

मिर्जापुर ईवीएम स्ट्रांग रूम के अंदर से ईवीएम बीप की आवाज आना गंभीर धांधली और षड्यंत्र का पर्दाफाश करता है।

तत्काल स्पष्टीकरण देते हुए कठोरतम कार्रवाई करे चुनाव आयोग। @ceoup @ECISVEEP @DM_MIRZAPUR pic.twitter.com/CHbw57FD1A

— Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) March 9, 2022

Good morning and welcome to the live commentary on the Uttar Pradesh election mandate. The counting of votes in India's most populous state will get underway at 8am.

The election in Uttar Pradesh is being seen as a litmus test for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. A majority of exit polls have predicted that the party will return to power but may not as triumphant a manner in which they won in 2017. In the last assembly election, the party had swept the election, winning 325 out of the 403 seats in the assembly.

The Opposition, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, have rejected the exit poll results and claimed that they would comfortably win the elections. In 2017, the Samajwadi Party had won 47 seats while the BSP could manage just 19. Read more