Lucknow:
Voting will be held on Wednesday for by-elections on nine assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh vacant after the Lok Sabha elections. The main contest in the by-election is believed to be between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party (SP). In the first electoral battle after the Lok Sabha elections, while the Congress has kept itself out of the by-elections and is supporting its ally Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting all the nine seats on its own. Is.
According to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh, more than 34.35 lakh voters in the state will be able to exercise their franchise for Wednesday’s by-election, which includes more than 18.46 lakh male and more than 15.88 lakh female voters.
By-elections will be held on these seats
Adequate number of paramilitary forces have been deployed for peaceful voting. A statement issued by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh said that voting will take place from 7 am to 5 pm. The nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh where by-elections are to be held are Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), Karhal (Mainpuri), Mirapur (Muzaffarnagar), Ghaziabad, Majhwan (Mirzapur), Sisamau (Kanpur), Khair (Aligarh), Phulpur (Prayagraj) and Kundarki. (Moradabad) are included.
How many candidates are in the electoral fray?
Of these, eight seats have become vacant after the sitting MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha, while by-elections are being held in Sisamau after the sitting SP MLA Irfan Solanki was convicted in a criminal case. A total of 90 candidates are in the fray in the by-election. Maximum 14 candidates are in the fray from Ghaziabad assembly constituency. At the same time, at least five candidates each are trying their luck on Khair (safe) and Sisamau seats.
In the last assembly elections (2022), SP had won Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal and Kundarki seats, while BJP had won Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Majhwan and Khair seats. Meerapur seat was with Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which is now an ally of BJP.
Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has fielded candidates on Ghaziabad, Kundarki and Mirapur seats, while Chandrashekhar’s Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) has fielded candidates on all seats except Sisamau.
The results of the by-elections will not have any direct impact on the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly, but it will send a message to various political parties. While SP will aim to increase its numbers in the House, BJP and its ally RLD will try to strengthen their presence in the Assembly.
At present BJP has 251 MLAs in the assembly, while SP has 105 MLAs. BJP’s ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 MLAs, RLD has eight, SubhaSP has six and Nishad Party has five. Congress and Jansatta Dal Loktantrik have two MLAs each, while BSP has one MLA. Currently ten seats are vacant.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday appealed to the voters to vote for his party. “I would like to ask all my voters, especially the youth and farmers, to help. The administration can only create disturbances in the elections. I hope that the administration will work to protect the rights given by Baba Saheb Bhimrao Ambedkar to the Constitution. Will do.
BJP’s Uttar Pradesh unit spokesperson Manish Shukla on Tuesday targeted SP and said, “SP is afraid of losing the by-elections.” Akhilesh Yadav wants to avoid responsibility by blaming the defeat on the Election Commission. Due to fear of defeat, SP is making a childish demand from the Commission that the identity cards should not be checked. Whereas in the past too, women wearing burqa have been caught casting fake votes.
Shukla was referring to a recent letter written by SP’s Uttar Pradesh unit president Shyamlal Pal, in which Pal had requested the Election Commission to issue instructions that “on the day of polling, no policeman will be able to check the voter’s identity card.” Don’t check it.
Citing the booklet for election officials, Pal said that on the day of polling, polling officials can check the voter’s identity card. RLD spokesperson Ankur Saxena said that his party is going to retain the Meerapur seat, while the NDA will make a clean sweep by winning all the by-election seats.
Uttar Pradesh Congress spokesperson Manish Hindavi said, ‘The people of the state have made their choice clear in the Lok Sabha elections, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party has got the maximum number of seats. This momentum will definitely continue in the by-elections also.
