UP Assembly by-elections – BJP to contest on 9 seats, RLD to contest on one seat

Lucknow| A meeting was held at the house of BJP national president J.P. Nadda regarding the by-elections for 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh. State Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, both Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brijesh Pathak, BJP State President Bhupendra Chaudhary, State Organization General Secretary Bhupendra were present in this meeting held under the leadership of JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

In the meeting, the names and strategy of the candidates for ten seats of the state, Karhal, Katehari, Milkipur, Kundarki, Ghaziabad, Khair, Meerapur, Phulpur, Manjhwa, and Sisamau were discussed. Earlier, after the survey for each seat, the state committee had selected three names and submitted the report to the high command. Because out of these ten seats, Samajwadi Party has five seats. Three with BJP and one each with Rashtriya Lok Dal and Nishad Party. Both Nishad and RLD are allies of BJP, hence in the meeting held in Delhi, it was also discussed how many of these ten seats these allies have to agree to contest. In such a situation, after the setback suffered by BJP in the Lok Sabha elections in the state, these by-elections are no less than a challenge for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as to how to win these seats.

However, according to the information about the decision taken in the meeting held at the residence of the National President in Delhi, in that meeting BJP has decided to field its candidates on nine out of these ten seats, while it has been decided to give Mirpur seat of Muzaffarnagar to RLD. Sanjay Nishad wanted to fight with Katehari and Majhwa, but according to what is coming to light, according to the option given by BJP to Nishad Party, it can fight from Majhwa seat but on the symbol of BJP. In such a situation, Sanjay Nishad is said to be angry with this decision of the party and may soon meet Home Minister Amit Shah regarding this.

The party has also considered giving Mirpur seat to RLD, while RLD had decided to field its candidate from Khair seat of Aligarh, but BJP wants to keep this seat falling in Hathras Lok Sabha constituency with itself at any cost, which is here. It became vacant after MLA Anoop Balmiki contested the parliamentary elections. In alliance with SP, Congress is also eyeing to contest from this seat, although SP has not yet announced the name of the candidate for this seat.

The party can field new faces on more than half the seats, while the party will focus more on some seats because the party is planning to field candidates from backward classes only. These seats are Milkipur, Katehari, Majhwa and Phulpur. In fact, the party will take special care of the caste equation while fielding its candidates in these by-elections. Besides, current issues will also be important. State BJP hopes to win at least eight to nine of these ten seats in these by-elections. In such a situation, the party seat is already with BJP, along with maintaining its dominance over it, it is also working on a special strategy on the seats held by SP.