Uttar Pradesh's MLC election results offer an early political indicator ahead of the 2027 Assembly polls. The BJP has won six seats, while the SP has won four and is leading in Varanasi graduates' constituency after the ninth round of counting.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won six of the 11 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council seats contested in the elections, while the Samajwadi Party (SP) has secured four. Counting is continuing into the third day, with the SP leading on the remaining seat, the Varanasi graduates' constituency, where its candidate Ashutosh Sinha has maintained a steady lead over BJP candidate Kedar Nath Singh.

The results come ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due next year, making the contest an early point of reference for the BJP and SP as they prepare for another electoral battle. However, the MLC elections cover specific graduates' and teachers' constituencies, so their outcome should not be treated as a direct prediction of the Assembly verdict.

Varanasi graduates' seat: Ashutosh Sinha widens his lead
Ashutosh Sinha's lead over Kedar Nath Singh has grown with each round of counting in the Varanasi graduates' constituency. At the end of the eighth round of first-preference vote counting, Sinha had received 47,450 votes, against 31,189 for Singh. He was ahead by 16,261 votes.

The gap widened further in the ninth round. Sinha's tally rose to 50,462, while Singh had secured 33,472 votes, putting the SP candidate 16,990 votes ahead.

Earlier, after the sixth round, Sinha had received 35,086 votes against Singh's 23,253, giving him a lead of 11,833. The fifth round had also favoured the SP candidate. Sinha received 6,264 votes in that round, compared with 3,969 for Singh. The cumulative totals after five rounds stood at 28,863 for Sinha and 19,373 for Singh, a lead of 9,490 votes.

Counting is being carried out at 14 counters, with first-preference ballots counted in batches of 1,000. By the fifth round, officials had reported that 70,000 votes had been counted. The counting was still under way on the third day, with Sinha continuing to lead.

Who has won the MLC seats?
The BJP has won six seats, while the SP has secured four, with the Varanasi graduates' seat still being counted. Among the declared results, BJP candidate Dinesh Kumar Goyal won the Meerut graduates' constituency, Umesh Dwivedi secured the Lucknow teachers' seat, Dr Manvendra Pratap Singh won the Agra graduates' constituency, Shrichand Sharma won the Meerut teachers' seat, and Dr Hari Singh Dhillon secured the Bareilly-Moradabad teachers' seat.

The SP's declared winners include Lal Bihari Yadav from the Varanasi teachers' constituency, Dr Akash Agrawal from the Agra teachers' constituency and Dr Man Singh Yadav from the Allahabad-Jhansi graduates' constituency. The party has won four seats so far and is leading in Varanasi graduates'.

What the results mean for the 2027 Assembly elections
The MLC results provide an early indication of how the BJP and SP are faring in this contest as they approach the 2027 Assembly elections. The BJP has secured the larger number of declared victories, while the SP has won four seats and is leading in another.

Still, the electorate for graduates' and teachers' constituencies is different from the broader electorate in Assembly elections. The results therefore cannot establish how next year's Assembly contest will unfold, but they offer an early snapshot of the two parties' performance in these constituencies.