Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has led the BJP to victory in six of the nine Assembly by-elections held on Wednesday, appearing to steady his position in the party amid speculation that a poor showing could leave his career hamstrung.

The loss of two seats to the Samajwadi Party, however, leaves enough ammunition in the hands of his intra-party critics, who had blamed him for the setback suffered in the state in the general election. The ninth seat has gone to BJP ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

An elated Adityanath arrived at the state BJP headquarters late in the afternoon while counting was still on and offered sweets to party workers. Beaming throughout his half-hour stay, he thanked “the people” and the “tireless BJP workers”.

In 2022, the BJP had won only two of these nine seats while the SP bagged five. The RLD and another BJP ally, the Nishad Party, had won one each.

On Saturday, the BJP snatched from the SP two seats that it had not won in three decades.

Samajwadi president Akhilesh Yadav said: “The government didn’t let our voters reach the booths. They won by intimidating our voters.”

Deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and state BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary had slammed Adityanath soon after the general election, attributing the poor showing to his “over-dependence” on government officials that apparently put off the party workers. The BJP saw its Lok Sabha tally cut to 33 from the 62 it had won in 2019.

Political observers had claimed that Maurya and Chaudhary had the backing of some central BJP leaders who were at loggerheads with Adityanath and wanted to cut him down to size.

While Saturday’s results mark a victory for Adityanath, his controversial warning to Hindus that “Batenge toh katenge (Divided, we’ll be slaughtered)” — which became the catch-line of the by-elections and concurrent state elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand — seemed to have fallen flat in communally surcharged Sishamau.

Naseem Solanki of the SP pulled off a surprise by defeating the BJP’s Suresh Awasthi in Sishamau, Kanpur, by about 8,600 votes. Naseem is the wife of Irfan Solanki, who was elected from the seat in 2012, 2017 and 2022.

Irfan was disqualified in June this year after being handed a seven-year sentence for burning an old woman’s house. The BJP had on the ground projected the by-election as a contest between “a Muslim convict versus a Hindu of the nationalist BJP”.

Public life is new for Naseem, who had visited cemeteries, gurudwaras and temples during her campaign and annoyed Muslim clerics as well as Hindu priests by worshipping at a Shiva temple during Diwali. The temple was later “cleansed” with Ganga water.

Naseem had alleged that a large number of her supporters were prevented from voting but asserted she would still win because of “massive support from the majority community”.

“I won because all the voters, irrespective of religion and caste, were alert against the communal BJP in Sishamau,” she said on Saturday.

Awasthi conceded: “I lost because the Hindu voters were divided here.”

Tej Pratap Yadav, nephew of Akhilesh, expectedly won from Karhal in Mainpuri, defeating the BJP’s Anujesh Yadav by about 14,000 votes. The Samajwadis have represented the seat continuously since 1993.

But Ramveer Singh’s massive win by about 85,000 votes against the SP’s Mohammad Rizwan in Kundarki is a big gain for the BJP, which had last won from the constituency in 1993. Since then, the Bahujan Samaj Party had won it twice and the SP thrice.

“This is the first time since 1993 that a Hindu candidate has won from here. Only Muslim candidates won in 1996, 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2022,” Ramveer said.

The BJP also won Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar) after 33 years, Dharmraj Nishad defeating the SP’s Jyoti Bind by about 30,000 votes.

Mithilesh Pal of the RLD won from Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar) against Sumbul Rana of the SP. The constituency was in the spotlight on polling day amid allegations that a police inspector had pointed his service revolver at a group of four Muslim women and prevented them from reaching the booths.

While the SP demanded action against the officer, identified as Rajeev Sharma, the police booked the four women, 24 men and 120 unnamed others on the charges of stoning and obstructing the police and breaching peace.

Akhilesh has said he would invite Tohida Begum, one of the four women who was seen arguing with the officer, to Lucknow and felicitate her for her courage.

Deepak Patel of the BJP has defeated Mohammad Mujtaba Siddqui of the SP by about 11,000 votes from Phulpur (Allahabad). Sanjeev Sharma has won Ghaziabad for the BJP, drubbing the SP’s Singh Raj Jatav by more than 69,000 votes.

Surendra Diler of the BJP has defeated Charu Kain of the SP by about 30,000 votes from Khair (Aligarh). In Majhwan (Mirzapur), Suchismita Maurya of the BJP scraped past the SP’s Jyoti Bind by about 5,000 votes.

The BJP also won the Kedarnath seat in Uttarakhand, Asha Nautiyal edging out the Congress’s Manoj Rawat by about 5,600 votes.

Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the victory and aimed a jibe at the Opposition.

“Those who were calling this by-election a semi-final must stick to their word and accept that we will win the 2027 Assembly elections too,” he added.