Akhilesh Yadav, the Samajwadi Party president, ordered his cadres in Varanasi to maintain a 24-hour vigil at the counting center until the victory certificate is formally handed over. The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister alleged that the result declaring the SP candidate the winner was ready but that the certificate was being deliberately withheld by the Varanasi administration. He accused the local officials of being squeezed between "contradictory pressure" from the central government in Delhi and the state government in Lucknow, a reference to the alleged internal rift between BJP leadership and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s camp.
The standoff unfolded as counting in the graduates' constituency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home turf, remained incomplete late into Wednesday night. According to the Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer’s office, results had been declared in nine of the eleven legco seats by 8 pm. The BJP had secured six seats, while the SP had won three. Counting was stalled in the Lucknow and Varanasi graduates’ constituencies, with the eighth round completed in Lucknow and only the fifth in Varanasi.
Yadav’s accusations came via a series of posts on X late Wednesday, where he warned that officials involved in manipulating the results would face legal action. "Voting being stopped or slowed down in Varanasi is part of a conspiracy, and everyone understands it," he wrote at 9:35 pm. He urged the Election Commission to demonstrate impartiality, claiming that a recount would be futile because SP supporters were monitoring the process closely. He described his workers as "PDA sentinels"—a reference to the party's focus on backward classes, Dalits, and minorities—and insisted they would not rest until the legal confirmation was in hand.
The SP’s claims of a delayed certificate stand in contrast to the official tally of declared seats. In the Allahabad-Jhansi graduates' seat, SP candidate Mansingh Yadav won with 60,358 votes. In the Varanasi teachers' seat, SP candidate Lal Bihari Yadav secured 11,612 votes. The BJP, meanwhile, captured the Meerut and Agra graduates' seats along with four teachers' constituencies. The only two seats left in the balance are the Varanasi and Lucknow graduates' constituencies, both of which carry significant political weight.
As dawn broke on Thursday, Yadav appealed to his base to ensure their colleagues at the counting center were stocked with food, water, and umbrellas. "A moment’s inattention can lead to an accident!" he warned, using a common road safety slogan to underscore the gravity of the situation. The next step hinges on the Election Commission’s decision to either declare the remaining two seats or face a formal legal challenge from the SP, a move that could escalate the political crisis in Uttar Pradesh well beyond the mere count of votes.