With ruling SP coalition clean sweeping the by-elections to four assembly seats, chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav retains his sway in Uttar Pradesh.

The voting pattern shows that the SP secured the highest 48.18 per cent votes, followed by 32.14 per cent by the BSP. The BJP got 10.5 per cent votes and the Congress trudged behind with 4.2 per cent. The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) that contested election in alliance with the Samajwadi Party secured 29.13 per cent votes of the lone Khairagarh seat.

The results show that the SP-RLD alliance has snatched a seat each from the BSP (Allahabad West) and the BJP (Khairagarh) and retained the remaining two -- Varanasi North and Haiserbazar.

For the Congress, these elections have proved to be a massacre, as its hopes of reviving its traditional support base in the state — home to both Sonia Gandhi and her son, Rahul Gandhi — stand blown apart. The party was virtually discarded, with its candidates forfeiting their security deposits on all the four seats.

With these results, the SP has inched forward towards halfway mark on its own in the 403-member house. Its strength now goes up to 196 and its alliance partner- the RLD has a flock of 15. The combine also enjoys the support of over a dozen independents and other smaller parties. Thus, Yadav is comfortably placed on the floor of the House. The most gratifying for Yadav was perhaps the victory of his party from Allahabad (West).

There was a straight fight between the SP and the BSP as the seat belonged to the latter. The by-election was a result of BSP’s sitting MLA, Raju Pal’s murder. This is why the BSP fielded his widow Puja Pal from here.

But she was trounced by the SP candidate, Mohammed Ashraf Ahmed, who is also brother of controversial MP, Atique Ahmed. Contesting from behind the bars, Mohammed Ashraf, is allegedly accused in the gruesome murder of Raju Pal on January 25, 2005. The SP candidate, Algu Prasad Yadav, however, managed to scrape through a narrow margin of 94 votes in Haiserbazar constituency. His nearest rival here was BSP’s Dashrath Prasad.

Mulayam’s party retained the Varanasi (North) where its nominee, Rabia Begum, defeated her closest rival, Ravindar Jaiswal of BJP by a margin of 15,998 votes.