By-elections to 10 Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats to be fiercely fought

The Indian Union’s big gains against the BJP in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha elections mean by-elections to 10 vacant seats are expected to be tightly fought, with the ruling party under pressure to regain power.

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The Election Commission has yet to announce dates for the by-elections, but the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Indian National Congress have announced they will contest the elections jointly under the Indian Union. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has also begun preparations, party leaders said.

Seats fell vacant after nine MPs, including Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, were elected to the Lower House, while SP state legislator from Sisamau, Irfan Solanki from Kanpur, was disqualified after serving a prison sentence in a criminal case.

Of the seats that fell vacant in 2022, five were won by the Samajwadi Party and one by the Rajya Sabha-led Congress Party (RLD), which was in coalition with the SP at the time. The BJP won three seats and one was won by the Nishad Party, an ally of the BJP.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Union won 43 of the state’s 80 seats, the SP 37 and the Congress 6. Meanwhile, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party won 33 seats, while its ally the Bharatiya Janata Party won two and the Apna Dal (S) one. The BSP did not win in this election. The BJP and its allies won 73 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and 64 seats in 2019.

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In by-elections to four constituencies held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections, the SP and BJP won two seats each, but their members are yet to be sworn in. The NDA members elected to the Lok Sabha are Chandan Chauhan of the Indian National Party, Atul Garg, Anoop Valmiki and Praveen Patel of the BJP, and Vinod Kumar Bhim of the Nirbhar Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal (NISHAD).

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and its MPs Ziaur Rahman, Lalji Verma and Awadhesh Prasad have been elected to the Indian Parliament.

In the 2022 state assembly elections, the BJP and its allies won 273 seats. According to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly website, out of the 403-seat House of Representatives, the BJP has 249 seats, its ally Apna Dal (S) has 13, the National Freedom Party has eight, the Suheldev Indian Samaj Party has six and the Nirbhar Indian Shoshit Hamara Aam Dal (NISHAD) has five. The SP has 103 seats and the Congress has two. Apart from this, there are two Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) legislators and one from the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Brajbhushan Dubey, special secretary to the UP Congress, said: PTI The information about the 10 vacancies has been sent to the Election Commission. “As per procedure, by-elections to these seats can be held within six months,” he said.

Can the SP and Congress continue their winning streak?

The BJP has a comfortable majority in the state assembly and the by-election results are not numerically significant, but it will have an impact on morale on both sides as a further defeat for the BJP will further consolidate the victories of the opposition SP and Congress.

While the SP and the Indian National Congress have expressed confidence of continuing their winning streak, party leaders said the BJP too will do “something special” to boost its “credibility” in the by-elections.

BJP’s state media chief Manish Dikshit said: PTI “The NDA will fight the state assembly by-elections with all its might. There is no pressure anywhere. Rather, the NDA will fight the state assembly by-elections with all its might. BJP activists are always ready for office and elections.”

“The party will fight the elections with all its might and the outcome will be an extraordinary achievement,” he said.

On the question of whether to give seats to coalition partners, he said: “The party leadership will decide on this, but at the organisational and government level, we have started preparing for the elections with full enthusiasm.”

Asked about the matter, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief spokesperson and national general secretary Rajendra Chaudhary said, “Preparations for by-elections have begun for all vacant seats and we will fight the elections with all our might in allyship with the Indian National Congress and win.”

“The committee formed for conducting the Lok Sabha elections is preparing for these 10 seats and Speaker Akhilesh Yadav will form a new committee for this after the Assembly session,” he said.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Rai said, “The Indian Union will fight the upcoming by-elections unitedly. Alliance leaders will meet soon to discuss seats and election strategy.”

A Bahujan Samaj Party leader said party president Mayawati would convene a meeting of senior leaders from across states in Lucknow on Sunday where they would also discuss strategy for the by-elections.