Keen contest on cards in bypolls to 10 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh

INDIA bloc challenges BJP in Uttar Pradesh by-elections, with parties gearing up for a keen contest.

With the INDIA bloc making significant gains against the BJP in Uttar Pradesh in Lok Sabha polls, the by-elections in 10 assembly seats that have fallen vacant are likely to witness a keen contest, with the ruling party under pressure to regain its hold.

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The Election Commission has not yet announced the date for the by-elections, but, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Congress have announced that they will contest together under the INDIA bloc. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has also begun its preparations, according to their leaders.

The seats fell vacant after nine Assembly members including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav were elected to Lok Sabha, while SP MLA from Sisamau MLA Irfan Solanki of Kanpur was disqualified after he was sentenced to jail in a criminal case.

Five of these vacant seats were won by the Samajwadi Party in 2022, while one seat was bagged by the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which was then in alliance with the SP. The BJP won three seats and one seat went into the account of BJP's ally Nishad Party.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the INDIA bloc won 43 seats out of 80 in the state, with 37 seats going to the SP and six seats to Congress. On the other hand, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party won 33 seats while its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal won two and Apna Dal (S) got one seat. The BSP did not open its account in this election. The BJP and its allies won 73 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 64 seats in 2019.

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