MLC Election Results 2026 Live: SP's Flag Flies in Agra and Banaras — Lal Bihari Yadav Wins Varanasi by 4,898, Akash Agarwal Leads in Agra

On a counting night that mostly went the BJP's way, the Samajwadi Party's flag is flying in two cities: Agra and Banaras. In Varanasi — Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha seat — the SP's Lal Bihari Yadav, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, has kept the teachers' seat, defeating the BJP's Dr Pramod Kumar Mishra by 4,898 first-preference votes. In Agra, the SP's Dr Akash Agarwal was well ahead of the BJP's Hari Kishore Tiwari when first-preference counting ended in the early hours, after a night of protests, a scuffle inside the counting centre and a BJP walkout.

Varanasi Teachers': SP's Lal Bihari Yadav wins by 4,898

Figures as reported by Amar Ujala. Smaller candidates' votes were not itemised. Valid plus invalid votes add up to 24,384 — the same as the number of teachers who voted on 23 October.

Lal Bihari Yadav took 47.8% of the valid votes. The quota — half the valid votes plus one — works out to 11,472, so he finished first-preference counting 514 votes short of it. That is why the formal declaration follows the elimination of lower-placed candidates and the transfer of their second preferences. For the BJP to close a gap of 4,898, Dr Mishra would need nearly every one of the 5,925 votes held by the other candidates, which is why news outlets reported the SP's win as soon as first-preference counting ended.

The margin is far bigger than in 2020, when Lal Bihari Yadav won by just 936 votes in the final round. Chet Narayan Singh — the BJP-backed sitting MLC who finished third in 2020 — was third again this time with 3,111 votes; in a closer contest, his voters' second preferences would have mattered. After his win, Lal Bihari Yadav said he would raise the old pension scheme and honorarium for teachers in the House, and credited the result to teachers' unhappiness with the BJP government.

Agra Teachers': SP's Akash Agarwal 3,698 ahead

Figures as reported by Amar Ujala and Agra Leaks. 861 ballots were rejected in round 1 and 1,126 in round 2.

Because no candidate reached half the valid votes on first preferences, officials began counting second preferences in the early hours. Agarwal, who won this seat in 2020 as an independent and is now defending it on the SP's ticket, needs only a small share of the transferred votes to cross the line; Tiwari would need an overwhelming share. The result is expected on Wednesday.

What happened in the counting hall

• About 12:30 am: While officials were examining doubtful ballots during the second round, supporters of the two sides clashed inside the Mandi Samiti counting centre. Akash Agarwal said BJP supporters pushed and assaulted him and tore his kurta. Hari Kishore Tiwari said SP workers had assaulted and abused his supporters and that his own supporters were wrongly detained. Both sides showed torn clothing.
• Police: Two people were detained. The Divisional Commissioner and the District Magistrate reached the centre to calm both sides, and Agra Police Commissioner Deepak Kumar said an inquiry was under way into the claims from both sides.
• Walkout: BJP workers sat on a dharna outside the centre. Tiwari later ended it and left with his supporters, saying his demands had not been met, while counting continued until about 5:30 am.
• Politics: SP president Akhilesh Yadav shared a video of the incident on social media and attacked the BJP.

None of these claims has been independently verified.

Not a clean sweep: the graduates' seats

The SP's good night did not extend to every seat in the two divisions:

• Agra Graduates': The BJP's Dr Manvendra Pratap Singh was 8,856 votes ahead after five rounds — 31,393 to 22,537 for the SP's Shashank Yadav. The lead was 2,735 after four rounds and widened sharply in the fifth.
• Varanasi Graduates': The SP's sitting MLC Ashutosh Sinha and the BJP's Kedar Nath Singh are in a rematch of 2020, when Sinha won by 3,850 votes after 22 rounds. No official trend had been released on Wednesday morning.
• Allahabad-Jhansi Graduates': The SP's sitting MLC Dr Man Singh Yadav overturned the BJP's first-round lead in round 2; reports put his edge at between 50 and 150 votes. Round-1 details.

Why Agra and Banaras matter

Both teachers' seats were held by non-BJP members going into this election, and both campaigns were fought on teachers' issues — the old pension scheme and pay for teachers in unaided institutions. Holding them gives the SP its only clear wins in a round where the BJP has taken the Meerut, Bareilly-Moradabad and Lucknow seats. See the full picture on our updated UP MLC scoreboard, and read how second-preference votes are counted.