BJP leader Lalji Tandon’s son Ashutosh celebrates after winning the Lucknow (East) Assembly seat. (PTI)

Lucknow, Sept. 16: The absence of Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party in the Uttar Pradesh bypolls appears to have helped Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadis bag Dalit votes and romp home in eight of 11 Assembly seats.

All eight are gains for the ruling Samajwadi Party since they were won by the BJP in the 2012 election. These are Bijnor, Thakurdwara, Nighasan, Hamirpur, Charkhari, Sirathu, Balha and Rohania,

The remaining three — Noida, Saharanpur city and Lucknow East — were won by the BJP.

The biggest jolt to the BJP is the defeat of Apna Dal candidate Krishna Patel, whom it had supported, by Samajwadi’s Mahendra Patel in Rohania. This Assembly seat falls in Varanasi, Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency. But the margin of victory was thin — 7,805 votes.

According to local leaders, Rohania had over 50,000 Dalit voters who are believed to have played a role in the victory of the Samajwadi Party, whose traditional votebank comprises the OBCs and the Muslims.

The victory has come as a boost to the sagging image of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, who congratulated voters today for “snubbing those forces that tried to divide society”.

However, the BSP’s tactical retreat from the bypoll scene and shunning a Bihar-like alliance, as suggested by Lalu Prasad, seem to have prepared the ground for its arch rival to snatch seats from the BJP, political veterans said.

After the success of the Lalu Prasad-Nitish Kumar tie-up in the Bihar bypolls, the RJD boss had advised Mulayam and Mayawati to get together to defeat the BJP.

BSP leaders said their party had contributed to the BJP’s defeat in most seats by not being in the race.

“A Bihar-type alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the BSP was difficult because cadres of the two parties would not work together. But behenji’s tactical withdrawal from the scene and her asking voters to exercise their choice have helped defeat communal forces,” said Brijesh Singh, a BSP leader based in Bundelkhand.

The BSP did not win a single seat from Uttar Pradesh in the general election. It was believed that its traditional Dalit voters might have voted BJP.

Earlier, BSP leader S.P. Maurya had said his party did not believe in wasting energy over bypolls. “Even if we win all 11 seats, it does not make much of difference in the state’s present political scenario. We are preparing for the 2017 poll.”

Today’s results suggest that even in the BSP’s traditional pockets of influence such as Hamirpur and Charkhari in Bundelkhand, the Samajwadis bagged Dalit votes.

“There was no direction to the Dalits to vote for a particular candidate or party. They might not have voted the BJP knowing the BSP’s antipathy for that party. This helped the Samajwadis. On its own, this party could not have won a single seat in Bundelkhand,” says Rajnarayan Budholia, a BSP legislator.

Samajwadi spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said: “The BSP did not have the courage to face people in the bypolls as its support base has shrunk. The Dalits have deserted them and switched loyalty to the Samajwadi Party.”