LUCKNOW: After facing a humiliating defeat in prestigious Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypoll, BJP is set for another crucial test in Kairana parliamentary constituency and Noorpur Assembly seat in western UP lying vacant following the death of BJP MP Hukum Singh and MLA Lokendra Singh Chauhan last month.
Riding on the success of high stake seats of Gorakhpur, stronghold of Yogi Adityanath and Phulpur, vacated by deputy CM Keshav Maurya, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and his BSP counterpart Mayawati may again come together to give their tie-up yet another trail in Kairana and Noorpur by-elections due within the next five months. This will be another opportunity for the two regional satraps to join hands against BJP in western UP bypoll thus giving a further push to the prospective alliance ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
However, the political experts feel that if BSP doesn’t fight the upcoming by poll and supports SP again on the two seats would set the tone of seat sharing between the two parties in the run up to next general elections.
While the Kairana winner would get hardly four to five month tenure left as MP, Noorpur winner would get more than three years in Assembly.
Expecting BSP support, SP is all set to put its best foot forward in the two constituencies. "The party leadership is yet to take a call on how to go about the bypolls for Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur
assembly constituency, but we will surely contest o both seats," said SP MLC Udaiveer Singh, who was Akhilesh's man Friday in the Gorakhpur and Phulpur.
On the contrary, the BSP sources claim that Mayawati would take any decision on the two seats only after assessing SP support in upcoming March 23 RS elections.
The Jat dominated parliamentary constituency of Kairana in Shamli district, traditionally a stronghold of Ajit Singh’s RLD, was won by BJP’s Hukum Singh in 2014 Modi wave. Hukum Singh drubbed the
BSP candidate by a record margin of around 2.5 lakh votes.
The Noorpur assembly seats got vacated after its two time BJP MLA, Lokendra Singh died in a car accident on Lucknow-Agra expressway while he was on way to Lucknow to attend the investor's summit on February 21. The seat in Bijnor district has been a tough call for both SP and BSP when they contested
separately in 2012 and 2017 assembly elections.