BJP bag Lakhimpur Kheri, Unnao seats 

Lucknow: many had thought that Lakhimpur Kheri would sound the death knell for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. The district was in the news over the killing of four farmers and a journalist during a Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni’s rally. However, all the eight Assembly constituencies in the district namely – Paliya, Nighasan, Gola Nighasan, Gola  Gorakhnath, Sri Nagar, Dhorhara, Lakhimpur, Kasta and Mohammadi – have been bagged by the BJP surprising all political analysts. It was also expected that BJP will face tough challenge due to the incident of gangrape of a 17-year-old in Unnao when the Congress fielded the mother of victim Asha Singh. In the end, however, she managed to get only 438 votes in the constituency which BJP’s Pankaj Gupta won by a handsome margin of over 80,000 votes over his nearest Samajwadi Party rival.