Updated on Saturday, May 12, 2007, 00:00 IST

Lucknow, May 12: BSP, which won 206 seats to get an absolute majority in the just concluded UP assembly elections, would have increased its tally by another 11 seats if some of the close contests had gone in its favour.

Out of 20 close contests, where the victory margin of the winning candidate was around 1,000 votes, Mayawati's BSP was in second position in 11 assembly constituencies.

The closest contest was witnessed in Jalesar where BJP's Kuver Singh beat Ranveer Singh Kashyap of BSP by a slander margin on 72 votes.

In five more assembly constituencies, the margin of votes by which the BSP candidates lost was between 231 and 400 votes. The victorious candidates in these consitutencies -- Banda, Sarsaul, Bidhuna, Sakeeta and Kol -- belong to SP (3), BJP (1) and Congress (1).

In most of the 11 constituencies, where BSP lost by narrow margins, it was the SP, which was the beneficiary.

Bureau Report