LUCKNOW: The Election Commission of India (ECI), on Tuesday, announced the schedule for nine of the 10 Assembly seats set for the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh.
The by-elections for nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will take place on November 1, and the results will be declared on November 23, along with the results of the Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly elections. However, the ECI did not notify the by-election in the Milkipur Assembly segment of Ayodhya which had fallen vacant by the election of sitting SP MLA Awadhesh Prasad to Lok Sabha in recent general elections.
Awadhesh Prasad had wrested Faizabad parliamentary seat from BJP’s two-term sitting MP Lallu Singh. As per the ECI, the by-poll in Milkipur would not be held along with the other nine seats as there was an election petition challenging the election of Awadhesh Prasad in 2022 was pending in Allahabad High Court. The petition to challenge the election of Awadhesh Prasad, who has represented SP in the UP Assembly nine times, was filed by the BJP candidate Gorakhnath Baba in 2022.
As per sources, Gorakhnath Baba had challenged the affidavit submitted by Awdhesh Prasad at the time of filing his nomination from the Milkipur assembly seat as SP candidate. The petitioner contended that the license of the lawyer, who had attested and verified the affidavit of the SP candidate, was cancelled many years ago and that it was not even renewed. Consequently, as per the petitioner’s claim, the affidavit of Awdhesh Prasad was fake and illegal and so his election should be cancelled.
Notably, the upcoming byelections are being considered as a litmus test for the Yogi government after the saffron party faced a debacle in the state in recent Lok Sabha elections in 2024. Out of the nine Assembly seats set to vote on November 13, four – Karhal, Katehari, Kundarki, and Sisamau -- were won by the Samajwadi Party, three – Khair, Ghaziabad and Phulpur by the BJP, and one each – Meerapur and Majhawan - by the Rashtriya Lok Dal and Nishad Party in 2022.
While RLD had won the Meeraur seat as SP ally, NISHAD had contested the 2022 assembly polls in alliance with the BJP. Now both RLD and NISHAD parties are in NDA. The ruling BJP has reportedly decided to contest on nine of the 10 assembly segments up for grabs in bypoll leaving the Meerapur seat for ally RLD as it had the sitting MLA who got elected to Lok Sabha from Bijnor in recent general elections.
The BJP is likely to announce the names of its candidates any time soon. On the other, the Samajwadi Party took its INDIA partner Congress by surprise by announcing candidates for six seats. However, it may spare a seat or two of the remaining four seats for Congress.