India, Oct. 29 -- LUCKNOW The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) split the two Lucknow division Legislative Council (MLC) seats on Wednesday, with the BJP's Umesh Dwivedi, 57, retaining the Teachers' constituency for a third consecutive term and the SP's Kanti Singh, 59, wresting the Graduates' constituency from the ruling party.

Dwivedi scored a hat-trick of victories in the Lucknow division Teachers' MLC constituency by defeating the SP's Sushil Kumar by a margin of 4,808 votes. Out of 25,835 valid votes counted in the Teachers' constituency, Dwivedi secured 13,179 votes while Sushil Kumar bagged 8,371.

"Happy to be elected as a legislative council member for the third consecutive time. It speaks about my commit...