SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav leading in Mainpuri

With the results to be announced today for the crucial Uttar Pradesh 2019 Lok Sabha elections, exit polls have already predicted that the BJP-led NDA will be bagging maximum seats in this House. The real contest, however, will be the Amethi seat, where chief of Congress Rahul Gandhi has been challenged against Union minister and leader of BJP Smriti Irani.

All eyes are also set on Raebareli and Varanasi, where Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are contesting from respectively. While the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party fielded candidates in 37 seats, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party is contesting from 38. While exit polls have suggested 62-68 seats for the BJP-led NDA in Uttar Pradesh, pollsters have given the SP-BSP-RLD mahagathbandhan 10-16 seats. The Congress has only been limited to 1-2 seats.

BJP and SP are the key parties contesting from Mainpuri seat. However, the Congress party has not fielded any of its candidate from this seat.

Mainpuri is one of the Lok Sabha seats that BJP failed to win or even challenge during the landslide triumph in the UP Assembly elections in 2017. The Congress had last won from Mainpuri in 1984.

This time, the 79-year-old leader has announced that it will be his last election and hence the party cadres and his supporters are hoping for a record victory.

Besides, Mulayam’s last election, there is another change which has completely twisted the equation on the ground – the SP alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) , which has come as a big boost.