BJP will win bypolls with big margin: Adityanath

Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh): After casting the "first" vote in the Lok Sabha by-election of Gorakhpur seat, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minster Yogi Adityanath said on Sunday that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would win the bypolls with a big margin.

Parliamentary constituencies of Gorakhpur and Phulpur are witnessing bye-elections after Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated their seats, respectively, on taking offices of the state government.

The people would not vote for the "opportunistic" alliance of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP), who have set aside their rivalry to join hands in the bypoll for the two constituencies, the chief minister told mediapersons outside a polling booth.

For Gorakhpur, the key contenders are Upendra Shukla from the BJP, Praveen Nishad from Samajwadi Party (SP) and Surhita Chatterjee Karim from Congress.

Meanwhile, candidates in the fray for the Phulpur seat are Kaushalendra Singh Patel from the BJP, Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel from SP and Manish Mishra from Congress.