In a major setback for the Samawadi party, ahead of 2017 assembly poll, the ruling party lost two out of the three assembly seats in the by polls held on February 13. In the by polls to 14 assembly seats held soon after May 2014 lok Sabha elections, SP had wrested 13 seats from the BJP.
All the three seats were held by the Samajwadi Party. The ruling party lost Deoband in Saharanpur district and Muzaffarnagar seats and could manage to retain the Bikapur seat in Faizabad district.
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav welcoming the po9ll results said, “We accept the verdict of the people’’.
In another by election for the mayor of Ghaziabad, the BP candidate Ashu Verma defeated Samajwadi Party candidate Sudan Rawal by 45,228 votes. The by election was caused by the death of the BJP mayor of Ghaziabad.
However, the big surprise of this assembly by polls was was the performance of Hyderabad based All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) led by Asaduddin Owaisi, MP, in Bikapur. AIMIM, which had contested the elections for the first time in UP, finished fourth spot just behind BJP.
Owaisi had aggressively campaigned in the constituency and had addressed two big election meetings. MIM had fielded a Dalit community candidates. Owaisi calling for a Dalit-Muslim combination in the coming 2017 Assembly polls had specifically asked the muslim not to vote for his party on religious grounds.
However the political observers feel that no clear picture emerges from the by poll results as the main opposition BSP had not contested the by elections.
The by election results were a big shot in the arm for the Congress as it muslim candidate won from the minority dominated Deoband seat where the ruling Samajwadi Party candidate came in the third spot. The by polls in Deoband was held following the death of Samajwadi Party members and minister Rajendra Singh Rana.
The BJP wrested the Muzaffarnagar seat from SP. The by polls were held following the death of Samajwadi Party members and minister Chittaranjan Swarup. By election in Bikapur was held due to the death of SP MlA and three terms MP, Mitrasen Yadav.
In Muzaffarnagar Assembly seat, BJP candidate Kapil Deo Agarwal defeated his nearest SP rival Gaurav Swarup Bansal by 7,352 votes. Agarwal polled 65,378 votes while Swarup received 58,026 votes. RlD candidate Mithlesh Pal received 14,673 votes while Congress candidate Salman Sayeed received 10,561 votes.
In Deoband, Congress candidate Mavia Ali, beat his nearest SP candidate Meena Singh by 3,499 votes. Mavia Ali is the chairman of the Deoband nagar palika and was earlier an SP leader. BJP candidate Rampal Pundir came to third spot. Mavia Ali polled 51,012 votes while Meena Singh, widow of late UP Minister Rajendra Singh Rana received 47,513 votes. BJP got 45,513 votes. An Independent candidate Vinod Kumar Tejyan, is said to have changed the political scenario for both the SP and BJP as he polled 16802 votes
However, as a consolation, SP retained the Bikapur seat where former minister Anand Sen, retained the seat of his father Mitrasen Yadav, by defeating his nearest RlD rival and party’s state President Munna Singh Chauhan by 6,526 votes.
While SP polled 68,896 votes, the RlD candidate received 62,456 votes. AIMIM candidate Pradeep Kori, finished on fourth spot by polling 11,657 votes while BJP candidate Ramkrishna Tiwari was just above it by receiving 11,933 votes .Congress candidate Asad Ahmed was pushed to fifth position by polling 2,945 votes.
Meanwhile, BJP and Congress are elated on the results while Samajwadi Party has blamed the polarisation for the defeat. BJP leader and in-charge of UP Om Mathur claimed that the results shows that people want to get relief from this SP government. He said that people have supported the BJP in a big way.
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