In a major setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Wednesday won the Lok Sabha seats of both Gorakhpur and Phulpur, which were vacated by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya. The Samajwadi Party had an electoral understanding with Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and had tied up with local satraps. Its candidate Pravin Nishad defeated Upendra Dutt Shukla of BJP in Gorakhpur and in Phulpur too, SP candidate Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel defeated his rival. 
With some more rounds of counting still being left, the overall picture appears to be that the electorate did not back the BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The defeat is seen as a major embarrassment to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in particular. The bypolls were necessitated after Adityanath and his Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats, respectively - following their election to the state Legislative Council. In 2014, the BJP stunningly won 73 of the 80 Lok Sabha seats while one of its allies secured two. The Samajwadi Party won from five seats. The Congress and BSP drew a blank.