Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday declared seven candidates for Uttar Pradesh byelections, fields Deepak Patel from Phulpur, Sanjeev Sharma in Ghaziabad. The party has also fielded Ramvir Singh Thakur from Kundarki, Surendra Diler from Khair, Anujesh Yadav from Karhal, Dharmraj Nishad from Katehari and Suchismita Maurya from Majhawan.
Later, in the evening, the party nominated Suresh Awasthi from the Sishamau assembly seat. Samajwadi Party’s Hazi Irfan Solanki’s Sishamau Assembly seat in Kanpur Nagar was declared vacant following his disqualification in view of his seven-year imprisonment by the MP/MLA court.
The Election Commission has announced a by-election on nine seats, leaving out Milkipur (Ayodhya). The last date for filing nominations is October 25. The SP has already declared its candidates from Karhal, Sisamau, Phulpur, Milkipur, Katehari, Majahawan and Meerapur. The counting of votes will take place on November 23.
Notably, INDIA bloc candidates will contest all nine seats in the upcoming bypolls on his party's election symbol 'cycle', Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav announced on Wednesday.
Congress-SP agreement
The Congress had originally demanded five of 10 assembly seats (including Milkipur). The SP, however, last week said the Congress had agreed to contest on two seats, Ghaziabad and Khair (Aligarh), leaving the rest to the SP. Samajwadi Party has already given Ghaziabad and Khair seats to Congress, apart from this it can now give Phulpur a seat also. Congress had claimed total 5 seats in the elections. But Samajwadi Party fielded total 7 candidates from its side.
What happened in 2022
In the 2022 assembly polls, Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal, Milkipur and Kundarki were held by the Samajwadi Party, while the BJP had won Phulpur, Ghaziabad, and Khair. The Meerapur seat was held by the RLD, while the Majhawan seat was won by the NISHAD party. Eight of these seats fell vacant after their MLAs were elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha, while a bypoll is being held on the Sisamau seat due to the disqualification of SP MLA Irfan Solanki, who was convicted in a criminal case.
