"Victory of INDIA bloc": Akhilesh Yadav after SP candidate nears win in Ghosi bypoll

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) [India], September 8 (ANI): Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday congratulated his party candidate Sudhakar Singh, who is leading in Ghosi Assembly bypolls by a huge margin, saying that this is a "victory" of the INDIA bloc and that it will continue in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. 
According to the Election Commission of India, the Samajwadi Party candidate is leading by over 30,000 votes and has garnered over 88,000 votes, in the latest trends. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Dara Singh Chauhan, who is trailing, has received only 38.67 per cent vote share.  
Ahead of ECI's final result, Akhilesh Yadav congratulated Sudhakar Singh and the people of Ghosi.
In a post shared on his X handle, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that the people of Ghosi not only helped the candidate of the Samajwadi Party win but also of the INDIA alliance. 
"We have won, and now this will be the result of tomorrow (2024 Lok Sabha elections) also," the post read. 
Today, the results for the bypolls in seven Assembly seats of six states--Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, Kerala-- were declared. 
These bypolls were seen as crucial, as they are considered to be a litmus test for the opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) against the ruling BJP ahead of the next year's general elections. 
Out of the seven Assembly seats, BJP has won three seats--Boxanagar, Dhanpur and Bageshwar--while the candidates of the INDIA alliance in the remaining including Ghosi are nearing victory with a handsome majority. 
The Ghosi bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of Dara Singh Chauhan, who had won the seat in the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, from the Samajwadi Party in July. He switched over to the BJP and was fielded by the party in the bypoll. (ANI)