UP Polls Results Live: SP may fall short of majority

Winds of change are blowing with full gusto in Uttar Pradesh, the results of Assembly elections 2012 indicate. The biggest gainer is the Samajwadi Party as it is steadily emerging as the single largest party. The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party is a distant second while the Congress and the BJP are engaged in a neck-to-neck race for the third spot, as per the latest trends.

Riding on the cycle, the Mulayam Singh-led party is leading in 173 of the 397 seats – total 403 - for which trends were available till 10.26 am. The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party is ahead in 98 seats while the BJP is ahead in 56 seats.

The Congress, for which the elections have been a high-profile affair after Rahul Gandhi himself steered the poll campaign, is leading in 56 seats as well. Others are ahead in only 14 seats.

Among the prominent SP candidates are Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother Shivpal Singh Yadav, Brahmashankar Tripathi, Abhay Singh, Mata Prasad and Veer Singh.

From the BJP who are on course to victory include Kalraj Mishra, Avadhesh Kumar, Daddan Mishra, Devendra Singh, Mahesh Kumar Sharma, Nawab Singh Nagar and Ramapati Shastri.

However, UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi is trailing from Lucknow.

Besides UP counting of votes is underway in Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa.

The first results are expected in an hour and all the final results by evening.

The results will decide the fate of candidates in a total of 690 assembly seats -- 403 in UP, 117 seats in Punjab, 70 in Uttarakhand, 60 in Manipur and 40 in Goa.

The elections, which have taken place in the middle of the last Lok Sabha election in 2009 and the next in 2014, are being considered some sort of "semi final" for the UPA and NDA.

While the Congress facing one controversy after another is looking forward to salvage its image, the opposition combine treats it as an occasion to pitch for a larger claim in 2014. The main opposition BJP is also confident that it will retain power in Uttarakhand and Punjab and put up a good show in Goa and Uttar Pradesh.