The Election Commission of India finally set the ball rolling for bypolls to seven Assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh and issued a notification on Tuesday afternoon.
Chief Election Officer (UP) Ajay Shukla said that nominations would commence from October 9 and end on October 16. While scrutiny would be done on October 17, candidates could withdraw nominations till October 19, he added.
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.
The polls will be held in compliance with Covid protocol, guidelines for which were also issued by the Election Commission along with the notification.
There are eight Assembly seats presently lying vacant in the state but the Election Commission is not holding bypoll for Swar seat in Rampur as a case is pending in a court.
The Swar seat fell vacant after disqualification of Samajwadi Party legislator Abdullah Azam, the son of SP stalwart Mohammad Azam Khan, for providing wrong date of birth while filing nominations.
The Assembly seats going for bypolls are Tundla (Firozabad) which fell vacant after the resignation of Bharatiya Janata Party’s SP Baghel who was elected to Lok Sabha; Bangarmau (Unnao) which fell vacant after BJP’s Kuldeep Singh Sengar was sentenced for life in a rape case.
Besides, Malhani (Jaunpur) fell vacant due to the demise of SP legislator Parasnath Yadav, Deoria Sadar due to death of BJP’s Janmejaya Singh and Bulandshahr due to BJP MLA Virender Sirohi’s death. The Ghatampur (Kanpur) seat fell vacant after BJP’s Kamal Rani Varun died of COVID-19. The Naugawan Sadat (Amroha) seat fell vacant after cricketer-turned BJP legislator Chetan Chauhan died of COVID-19.
In all seats, a four-cornered contest is expected as the BJP, SP BSP and Congress have announced to contest the bypolls. Of the seven seats, six were bagged by the BJP and one was represented by Samajwadi Party.
Though the bypoll results would not affect the majority in Assembly, there will be a huge political message for the 2022 UP Assembly elections.
