By-elections to as many as 13 Assembly seats could be in the offing as some MLAs have tried their luck in the Lok Sabha elections. If these candidates win, bypolls will surely be held in their constituencies. The MLAs are from both treasury and opposition benches and include four UP ministers.
During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, as many as 14 BJP MLAs were elected to Lok Sabha. In the ensuing bypolls, 13 of these seats were wrested by the then ruling Samajwadi Party and the BJP could retain only one seat.
The BJP has fielded four UP ministers and five legislators in Lok Sabha elections. Two legislators from Samajwadi Party and one each from Bahujan Samaj Party and Apna Dal (Sonelal) also contested the Lok Sabha elections.
Cabinet minister and BJP MLA from Lucknow Cantonment, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, contested the Allahabad Lok Sabha seat while another minister, Satyadev Pachauri, is the BJP candidate from Kanpur Nagar.
Two other ministers in the fray are SP Singh Baghel from Agra (reserved) seat and Mukut Bihari Verma from Ambedkar Nagar.
Besides, the BJP legislators contesting the Lok Sabha elections include MLA from Manikpur RK Singh Patel (Banda), MLA from Iglas, Rajvir Singh Valmiki Diler (Hathras), Jaidpur legislator Upendra Rawat (Barabanki), MLA from Gangoh Pradeep Chaudhary (Kairana), and party legislator from Balha, Akshaywar Lal Gaud (Bahraich).
The Samajwadi Party has fielded its senior legislator Mohammad Azam Khan from Rampur Lok Sabha seat where he is pitted against Jaya Prada of BJP.
Another SP legislator, a rebel, is Shivpal Singh Yadav who is contesting from Firozabad against SP’s official candidate and his nephew Akshay Yadav. If Azam Khan and Shivpal Yadav win their elections, the SP will have to face bypolls in two seats.
The Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded its legislator Ritesh Pandey from the Ambedkar Nagar seat while Apna Dal (Sonelal) MLA Sangam Lal Gupta is contesting the Lok Sabha election from Pratapgarh on BJP ticket.
“The election season, as it is, never peters out in Uttar Pradesh and we seem to be heading for another round of by-elections in the coming months,” said leader of opposition in Assembly and SP MLA Ram Govind Chaudhary.
