Even as the schedule for the bypoll to ten assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh is yet to be announced, battle lines have been drawn by the two main contenders—Bhartiya Janata Party and Samajwadi Party-led opposition INDIA block.
The BJP has finalised plans for the bypoll with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath having deployed 30 ministers — three each for the 10 assembly seats and 15 senior leaders as ‘palaks’ (caretakers).
CM Yogi himself has taken the party’s command in Milkipur and has been overseeing the poll preparations there. Yogi has already paid at least two visits to Milkipur in the run-up to the by-elections.
Besides Milkipur, he is also taking care of poll preparations in the Katehari assembly seat vacated by sitting SP MLA Lalji Verma, who got elected to Lok Sabha from Ambedkar Nagar.
The SP and Congress have also pulled up their socks to repeat their Lok Sabha feat in the UP bypoll.
In order to take on the BJP head on, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has appointed party’s PDA poster boy and Ayodhya MP Awadhesh Prasad as in-charge of the Milkipur assembly seat, which was vacated by him after getting elected to Lok Sabha, defeating BJP’s sitting MP Lallu Singh.
Akhilesh has appointed his uncle Shivpal Yadav as incharge of the Katheri assembly seat.
Apart from Milkipur, Akhilesh Yadav has taken the overall command of the bypoll. As per the SP insiders, one or two seats could be given to ally Congress.
SP’s Chandauli MP Virendra Singh has been appointed as incharge of the Majhawan seat in Mirzapur district, former UP minister and Akhilesh’s close associate Chandradev Singh Yadav has been given the responsibility of Karhal, the stronghold of the SP.
SP MLA Indrajeet Saroj has been made incharge of the Phulpur seat in Prayagraj district. Similarly, MLA Rajendra Kumar has been entrusted with the responsibility of Sisamau, the seat which got vacated due to the disqualification of SP’s sitting MP Irfan Solanki.
As per SP sources, the party in-charges on the remaining four seats, including Kundarki in Moradabad, Khair in Aligarh, Meerapur in Muzaffarnagar and Ghaziabad Sadar, would be announced shortly.
Of the 10 seats up for grabs, Kundarki, Milkipur, Katehari, Karhal and Sisamau have been vacated by the SP while Meerapur had the sitting MLA of RLD.
It may be recalled that the SP and Congress had announced to contest the assembly bypolls together on 10 seats. However, the picture on seat-sharing between the two parties is yet to be made clear.
The seats, vacated by the BJP, going to the bypoll are Khair, Ghaziabad and Phulpur while Manjhwan had the NISHAD Party’s MLA, was elected to Lok Sabha from Bhadohi on a BJP ticket.
