Early UP trends show gains for BJP, Rahul trails

Lucknow, May 23 (IANS) Counting began amidst tight security in Uttar Pradesh and early trends show a major lead for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) L. Venkateshwarlu said that the counting will decide the fate of 979 candidates and the number of EVMs to be counted is 1.63 lakh. According to initial trends, the biggest shocker came from Amethi where Congress President Rahul Gandhi was trailing to BJP's Smriti Irani by some 2,500 votes. Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav was leading in Azamgarh while Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was leading in Lucknow. Other BJP candidates leading in the first round were Santosh Gangwar (Bareilly), Sangam Lal Gupta (Pratapgarh) and Kanwar Singh Tanwar (Amroha). Varun Gandhi of BJP was leading in Pilibhit but Samajwadi Party's Dharmendra Yadav was trailing in Badaun. Meanwhile, the CEO said that results of those Lok Sabha constituencies that span across two or three districts will be delayed by a few hours for technical reasons.

--IANS amita/mr/pg