As of 1:30 pm, according to updates from the Election Commission of India, Sriprakash Jaiswal of the Congress was trailing the BJP's Satyadev Pachauri in Kanpur by over 48,000 votes.

Kanpur has seen a mix of MPs over the years, sending candidates of Congress, BJP, independents and even a CPI(M) candidate once. Since 1999, Sriprakash Jaiswal has won thrice for the Congress party only to be defeated in 2014 by the BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi. Joshi received 56 per cent of the total vote share and defeated Jaiswal with a margin of 2,22,946 votes. Soon after the BJP government was formed at the centre, Joshi was sent to a ‘margdarshak mandal’ along with LK Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Joshi had contested the Kanpur seat because the then BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had made Varanasi his ‘karmabhoomi’ and planned to contest from there. Joshi, the sitting MP from Varanasi, had to move to Kanpur. The former BJP president and union minister in the NDA government in 1999 to 2004, was denied a ticket in this election when BJP amended a new rule that retired politicians above the age of 75 years.

The BJP has pitted Satyadev Pachauri, a BJP MLA from Kanpur, to fight the contest with Jaiswal.