UP by-polls to be held tomorrow, BJP faces SP-BSP alliance
Lucknow, Mar 10 (IBNS): The by-polls in two parliamentary constituencies of Uttar Pradesh, Gorakhpur and Phulpur, will take place on Sunday as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fighting a prestige battle against the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance, media reports said.
The Gorakhpur seat had fallen vacant after the resignation of Yogi Adityanath who became the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister in 2017.
In the same year, Keshav Prasad Maurya vacated his Phulpur seat to become the Deputy Chief Minister of the state.
The Gorakhpur seat has been a bastion of Adityanath, who was the MP from the constituency for 18 years.
While the BJP is trying to retain both the seats, the SP-BSP alliance is trying to get some oxygen ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by winning them.
In 2017 state election, the BJP and its allies had a landslide victory by securing 325 seats in a 403-member Assembly.
The SP-Congress alliance, which failed to combat the saffron surge in the state, was reduced to just 50 odd seats.
With an aim to counter BJP in the state, two arch-rivals-Akhilesh Yadav's SP and Mayawati's BSP- tied the knot for the by-polls.
In both the seats, the Congress, which had an alliance with the SP in the last Assembly polls, is fighting separately.
The poll results will come out on Mar 14.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
