Campaigning for the crucial by polls to two assembly seats in UP came to end this evening where polling is scheduled on May 16. The by polls to the two assembly seats is the last by elections of the 16th state assembly.
The by elections to Bilari and Jangipur assembly seats ahead of the 2017 assembly polls will be the litmus test for the popularity of the ruling Samajwadi party. In February this year SP had lost two seats one in Muzaffarnagar to the BJP and other, Deoband seat to the Congress.
BSP, perceived to be the front runner to capture power in 2017 has opted to stay away from the by polls. The by polls to Bilari and Jangipur were caused by the death of the two members of the ruling Samajwadi Party.
Jangipur seat in Ghazipur district fell vacant following the death of sitting MlA and cabinet minister Kailash Yadav due to brain hemorrhage in February, while Bilari in Moradabad district following death of 64-year-old Haji Irfan in a road accident in March.
The campaigning for both the assembly by polls turned to be a lackluster due to the scorching heat conditions in the state. Polling would be held between 7am to 4 am hours on May 16.
Union ministers including Sanjeev Baliyan in Bilari seat in Moradabad district and Railway minister Manoj Sinha in Jangipur seat in Ghazipur district campaigned in the assembly constituencies to ensure the win of the BJP candidates. The Samajwadi patty too deployed a dozen ministers in each of the two assembly seats for campaigning. Congress too has jumped in the fray with several of their senior leaders camping in both the constituencies.
In Bilari seat the main fight is between SP and BJP and it will be nearly 82,000 Dalit votes here which will play an important role. BJP has fielded Suresh Saini, a backward candidate, SP has given its ticket to Mohd Faheem, son of deceased incumbent Mohd Irfan and Shishu Pal Singh Jatav, a Dalit, is the Congress candidate. There are a total of 3.42 lakh voters. Around 1 lakh are Muslims and nearly 40,000 voters belong to the Yadav community. In order to ensure free and fair polls, the authorities have deployed five companies each of the Central forces and PAC along with around 3000 police and home guard personnel during the polling in Bilari seat.
In Jangipur seat, the poll equation has changed after Quami Ekta Dal (QED) of the Mukhtar Ansari announced to support the SP candidate and son of the deceased minister. Here too the main fight would be between the SP and the BJP candidates. Union minister Manoj Sinha is single handedly taking on over 10 state ministers who are camping in Jangipur for the past one week.
While the union minister, who represents Ghazipur, lok Sabha seat claims that what railways have done in 2 years in the district no other government had done in the past 25 years, the SP ministers are seeking vote on the name of Kailash Yadav, for his dedication for the constituency.
There are seven candidates in the fray for the Jangipur seat with widow of Kailash Yadav; Ms Kismatiya Devi is pitted against BJP's Ramesh Singh. There are 2, 79,177 voters in the assembly constituency. In 2012 assembly elections, Kailash Yadav won by a slender margin of around 4000 votes against BSP candidate. At that time the BJP candidate had finished third by polling around 10,000 votes.
Elaborate security has been made for the polling day, with six companies each of Para Military forces and PAC along with 2500 district police and home guards would be deployed to ensure free and fair elections. Counting of votes for both the seats would be taken up on May 19.