The Election Commission on Thursday announced that bypolls to four lok Sabha seats, including Uttar Pradesh's Kairana, that will take place on May 28 while the counting will be held on May 31. The bypolls will be held for Bhandara-Gondiya and Palghar in Maharashtra, Kairana, and Nagaland lok Sabha seats.
The bypoll to the Kairana seat was necessitated after BJP veteran Hukum Singh passed away in February. Jats and Gujjars are the two of the largest chunks of voters in Kairana. While BJP leaders are confident that Gujjar voters will stick with the BJP out of sympathy for deceased MP Hukum Singh, a Gujjar, the Jat voter could prove to be the kingmakers. After losses in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur lok Sabha bypolls, BJP leaders don't want to leave any stone unturned this time.
Kairana parliamentary constituency comprises five assembly segments, three in Shamli and two in Saharanpur district. Communal tensions in Kairana have been high ever since 2016, after Hukum Singh alleged that 250 Hindu families had fled Kairana in a “mass exodus” over the last few years due to “pressure from another community”. Singh went as far as to claim that Kairana was becoming “another Kashmir” with Hindu families fleeing. While the BJP leadership endorsed his claims, the district administration and the ruling Samajwadi Party had vehemently denied them. The ruling BJP lost to Phurpur and Gorakhpur seats due to over confidence to BJP and its senior leaders.The defeat of BJP has given oxygen to the opposition Samajawadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in the state.
In 2017, the cumulative vote count of the SP, BSP and Congress in the five assembly seats stood at 4.98 lakh. The BJP bagged 4.32 lakh votes.
Nana Patole of the BJP had resigned from the Bhandara-Gondiya seat last year and joined the Congress. The Palghar seat fell vacant after the demise of BJP MP Chintaman Wangaya.
The Nagaland seat fell vacant when Neiphiu Rio resigned as a lok Sabha member to become the chief minister of the state.
The bypoll to to the Noorpur legislative Assembly seat will also be held on the same dates. It had fallen vacant in February when sitting BJP MlA lokendra Singh died in a car accident.
The bypolls to the assembly seats Jokihat (Bihar); Gomia, Silli (Jharkhand); Chengannur (Kerala); Plaus Kadegaon (Maharashtra); Ampati (Meghalaya); Shahkot (Punjab); Thralai (Uttarakhand); and Maheshtala (West Bengal) will also be held on May 28.