WB CM lauds Akhilesh, Mayawati on comfortable lead over rivals in UP

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday congratulated Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati after Samajwadi Party's (SP) candidates took a comfortable lead over their rivals in Uttar Pradesh bypolls.

Banerjee took to Twitter and wrote, "Great victory. Congratulations to Mayawati Ji and Akhilesh Yadav Ji for #UPByPolls The beginning of the end has started".

The two arch-rivals had come together for the Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls.

In Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, SP's Praveen Kumar Nishad is leading by 28,737 votes with 2,93,153 votes, BJP's Upendra Dutt Shukla is second with 2,64,416 votes after 19th round of counting.

In Phulpur, Samajwadi Party's Nagendra Pratap Singh Patel is leading by 29,474 with 2,18,963 votes, BJP's Kaushlendra Singh Patel is second with 1,89,489 votes after 20th round of counting.

The bypolls were necessitated after Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats, respectively, following their election to the state legislative council.