Political activities in Uttar Pradesh have gained momentum as the Election Commission of India will take a call on the schedule for by-elections to eight assembly seats in the state on September 29.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday sounded the Bharatiya Janata Party’s poll bugle and visited two of the eight assembly constituencies where the bypolls are due while the Congress, staying ahead of others, announced the candidates for two assembly seats—Swar in Rampur and Bangarmau in Unnao district.
The stakes are high for both the ruling BJP and the opposition Samajwadi Party as the bypolls are said to be a mini-assembly election ahead of the 2022 UP assembly polls.
The Yogi Adityanath government took office on March 19, 2017 and has completed 42 months of its 60-month term. The BJP faces the challenge of retaining six of the eight assembly seats that are likely to go to the polls. The remaining two seats were with the Samajwadi Party.
The SP had held the two seats of Malhani (Jaunpur) and Swar (Rampur) that will see by-elections while the remaining six— Tundla (Firozabad), Bulandshahr, Naugawan Sadat (Amroha), Ghatampur (Kanpur Nagar), Bangarmau (Unnao), and Deoria were previously held by the BJP.
The Bahujan Samaj Party’s decision to contest the by-elections will make the fight interesting on all the seats.
After three consecutive defeats at the hands of the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, 2017 UP assembly elections and 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Samajwadi Party is putting up a brave front and claims that it has intensified preparations for the forthcoming bypolls to eight UP assembly seats. The absence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav has however hampered the preparations. Akhilesh Yadav is presently abroad along with his family.
After the Yogi Adityanath took over as the chief minister, the Samajwadi Party got a brief respite in 2018 when it won the bypolls to three Lok Sabha seats – Gorakhpur, Phulpur with the support of Bahujan Samaj Party. The bypolls to Kairana Lok Sabha seat held in May 2018 was won by Rashtriya Lok Dal, an ally of the Samajwadi Party. The SP had also wrested the Noorpur assembly seat in Bijnor district in 2018 that was won by the BJP in 2017.
“Samajwadi Party did well in the bypolls and it will win seats in the forthcoming bypolls too. People are agitated and want the SP back. We have invited applications for the eight seats. The applications have come and now the party national president will finalise the candidates,” SP state spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said.
The Election Commission has declared the schedule for the Bihar assembly polls and is likely to soon announce one for the UP assembly bypolls as well.
“One of the reasons why the Samajwadi Party is not contesting the Bihar assembly polls is to remain focused on UP bypolls,” said a party leader.
Last week, the SP had declared that it would not contest the Bihar polls and would instead support the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
SP state president Naresh Uttam Patel has completed a round of virtual meetings with the party outfits and sector in-charges in seven of the eight constituencies that will go to bypolls. Patel has asked the party outfits in the eight constituencies to take the bypolls ahead of the 2022 UP assembly elections very seriously saying, The bypolls are crucial and would have a far-reaching impact,:”
He has also asked the party’s frontal organisations in the eight constituencies to intensively campaign, both virtually as well as by conducting door-to-door campaigns while maintaining Covid safety protocols.