UP bypolls: Notification to be issued for 7 Assembly seats tomorrow

The bypolls, said to be a mini Assembly polls and semi final before the 2022 Assembly elections, are expected to be a four-cornered contest as the ruling BJP, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress have announced to field separate candidates in all the seats.

SP had already declared four candidates while Congress was one so far.

There are eight Assembly seats vacant in the state but the Election Commission was not holding the bypoll of Suar seat in Rampur due to pending petition in the High court.

Suar seat fell vacant following disqualification of Abdullah Azam, son of Samajwadi Party leader Mohammad Azam Khan, due to age forgery.

The nominations will commence from October 9 and will end on October 16 while scrutiny of papers would be done on October 17. Candidates can withdraw their nominations till October 19.

The polling would be held on November 3 and the counting of votes would be taken up on November 10 along with the counting of Bihar assembly votes.

Of the seven Assembly seats which will go through bypolls in UP, six are in the possession of Bharatiya Janata Party and with Samajwadi Party.

Though the results of these seven seats will not affect the majority in the Assembly, it will be an indicator for the upcoming Assembly elections.

According to EC, due to Covid-19 pandemic, this time a new guideline has been issued as only two people, including the candidate, would be allowed to be present during the filing of nominations and only two vehicles would be allowed inside the campus.

The candidates will have to submit their nominations online along with the security deposit and only the copy of these would be submitted during physical presentation.

The UP government has sought 35 companies of Central forces for the peaceful conduct of the bypolls. The Election Commission this time has allowed voters of above 80 years of age of getting the facility of postal ballots. All voters would be given sanitized hand gloves to press the electronic voting machines.

Among the Assembly seats where the bypolls will be held were the Tundla seat of Firozabad which got vacant after the resignation of BJP's SP Baghel after being elected as MP.

BJP’s Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s seat Bangarmau of Unnao has been vacant since his membership was cancelled after he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Unnao rape case.

Apart from this, after the demise of Parasnath Yadav of Samajwadi Party, the Malhani Assembly seat of Jaunpur fell vacant.

The seats of BJP's Janmejaya Singh from Deoria Sadar and Virender Sirohi from Bulandshahr were vacant due to their deaths, while Ghatampur seat of Kanpur has been vacant since the death of BJP's Kamal Rani Varun who died after being positive for Covid-19 infection.

The Naugawan Sadat seat in Amroha went vacant after Indian cricketer-turned politician Chetan Chauhan died due to coronavirus infection.