UP Bypoll Results: As BJP Looks to Bolster Position, Congress, BSP and SP Face Litmus Test Ahead of 2022 Assembly Battle

Lucknow: With all the political parties looking to bag the maximum number of seats, the outcome of by-elections to the 11 Assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh will be nothing less than a dress rehearsal for the 2022 Assembly poll battle.

Counting will begin at 8am on Thursday for the seats of which eight were with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one with its ally Apna Dal, and one each with the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

According to information provided by the state’s chief electoral officer, as many as 109 candidates are in fray for the 11 Assembly seats — Gangoh, Rampur, Iglas (SC), Lucknow Cantonment, Govindnagar, Manikpur, Pratapgarh, Zaidpur (SC), Jalalpur, Balha (SC), and Ghosi.

The maximum candidates — 13 — are from Lucknow Cantonment and Jalalpur Assembly constituencies, followed by 11 each in Ghosi, Gangoh, Pratapgarh, and Balha (SC). Nine candidates each are in the fray in Govindnagar and Manikpur, while seven candidates are contesting from Rampur, Iglas (SC) and Zaidpur (SC).

The by-elections were necessitated after a few of the MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha and resigned as members of the Assembly. The constituency of Ghosi fell vacant following the resignation of sitting MLA Phagu Chauhan after he was appointed as the Governor of Bihar.

While the opposition parties are expecting to repeat the success they tasted in the bypolls to Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana Lok Sabha seats and in the Noorpur Assembly constituency last year, the ruling BJP seems confident of increasing its tally.

With all the parties fighting separately, the contest has turned into a four-cornered one in all the districts, giving an edge to the ruling camp.

The Mayawati-led BSP and Akhilesh Yadav-run SP, which were in an alliance in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, ended their tie-up after the embarrassing results of the polls in which they could manage only 15 of the 80 seats.

In the 2017 Assembly polls, the SP’s tie-up with the Congress had also failed to deliver. The UP Assembly has 302 lawmakers from the BJP, 47 from the SP, 18 from the BSP, eight from the Apna Dal, and seven from the Congress.

While it would not be anything less than a question of survival for the opposition parties, the bypoll outcome will also be an opportunity for the BJP to further strengthen its position in the state.