Campaigning for the bypolls to nine constituencies of Uttar Pradesh assembly ended on Monday evening.

Polling in these nine assembly seats will be held on November 20 from 7 am to 6 pm and the counting of votes will be taken up on November 23.

These bypolls are being termed as a semi-final of the 2027 UP assembly elections and have turned into a prestige issue for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s dismal performance in the Lok Sabha polls in the state.

Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party face the challenging task of winning the by-elections. For the BJP, the bypolls are an important occasion to avenge the dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections largely due to the ruling party’s failure to counter the fake narrative spread by the opposition about abrogation of Constitution and reservations for Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes.

The SP faces the challenge of retaining and further strengthening the euphoria generated by its stellar performance in the Lok Sabha elections in which it won 37 seats against the only five seats it bagged in the 2019 parliamentary polls. If the SP fails to perform then it will have serious bearings on its claims of coming to power in Uttar Pradesh in the 2027 state assembly elections.

Though the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), the opposition bloc, is intact, its important constituent Congress has opted to stay out of the by-elections in UP and has not fielded any candidate. The grand old party is supporting the SP.

In all the nine constituencies where bypolls are being held, there is a direct contest between the BJP and the SP. However, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party is also contesting all the seats, and this could impact the results for both the SP and the BJP as it could dent the Dalit votes in all nine assembly seats. The BSP had drawn a blank in the Lok Sabha elections held in June last.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has single-handedly led the campaign for the BJP and has visited each assembly constituency going to bypolls at least twice along with holding roadshows to woo the voters. Yogi has been assisted by his ministerial colleagues and the BJP state leaders in the electioneering.

On the other hand, SP president Akhilesh Yadav spearheaded the campaigning for his party and visited all nine constituencies.

Out of the nine assembly seats going to bypolls, four were held by the SP, three by the BJP, one each by BJP ally NISHAD Party and SP’s former ally Rashtriya Lok Dal which switched sides to the National Democratic Alliance before the Lok Sabha polls.

Eight of these seats fell vacant after their MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha polls. In Sisamau, the bypoll is being held due to the disqualification of SP MLA Irfan Solanki, who was convicted in a criminal case.

Karhal and Katehari assembly seats are important as they were held by the SP but this time the BJP has put all its pressure on winning them. Among the constituencies where by-elections are being held, Ghaziabad, Khair and Phulpur were held by the BJP while the Meerapur seat was won by RLD. Similarly, Majhwan seat was with the NISHAD Party, but this time, the BJP has fielded a former MLA from there. The saffron party is also trying to wrest the Kundarki seat in Moradabad and Sisamau seat in Kanpur from the SP.