New Delhi:

The Bharatiya Janata Party is leading in six of nine Uttar Pradesh Assembly bypolls held this week, as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath reasserts control over a state at the core of the BJP’s Hindi voter base.

At 2 pm, according to the Election Commission, the BJP was leading in the Kundarki, Ghaziabad, Khair, Phulpur, Katehari, and Majhawan seats. The Rashtriya Lok Dal, an ally, leads in Meerapur.

The Samajwadi Party – which defeated the BJP in the April-June federal election, scooping up 42 of the state’s 80 seats (up 37 from last time) – is leading in Karhal and Sishamau only.

Karhal is party boss Akhilesh Yadav’s bastion; Mr Yadav won by nearly 70,000 votes in the 2022 election, extending his party’s hold on the seat to over three decades.

The bypolls were triggered after sitting MLAs – including Mr Yadav – were elected to the Lok Sabha.

In Meerapur, the RLD’s Mithlesh Pal is nearly 20,000 votes ahead of her nearest rival, the SP’s Sumbul Rana. The seat was won by the RLD, by Chandan Chauhan, in the last election.

In Kundarki, Ramveer Singh has a massive lead, of nearly one lakh, over the SP’s Mohd Rizwan and, barring the most unlikely turn of events, will flip the seat won by the rival party in 2022.

The Ghaziabad seat is set to remain with the BJP; Atul Garg won it for the saffron party last time and Sanjeev Sharma is likely to retain the seat for the party. Mr Sharma is well over 63,000 votes ahead.

The BJP is also set to retain Khair and Phulpur, where Surender Diler and Deepak Patel are leading their SP rivals, Charu Kain and Mohd Siddique, by over 40,000 and around 9,000 votes, respectively.

The BJP is also en route to claim the Katehari seat won by the Samajwadi Party in the last election; Dharmraj Nishad is over 8,000 votes ahead of the SP’s Shobawati Verma.

And finally, in Majhawan, the BJP’s Shuchismita Maurya leads Dr Jyoti Bind of the SP by 5,000-odd votes; this seat was won by the NISHAD Party in the last election.

Overall, the ruling party has not only retained the three seats it won in 2022 but also flipped two others – Kundarki and Katehari – while also picking up a sixth from allies NISHAD Party.

Voting for these bypolls have been hit by a wave of alleged electoral malpractice, including claims by Akhilesh Yadav that voters were threatened by police in Muzaffarnagar’s Kakrouli. District officials, however, claimed stones were pelted at cops trying to break up a fight between two groups.

READ | UP Official Counters Akhilesh Yadav’s Claims Of Voter Harassment

The Samajwadi Party also accused the police of “misbehaving” with voters in Meerapur. “They are being stopped from casting their votes, voting is getting affected. Police is misbehaving with voters and using lathis on women at booth number 318 of Mirapur assembly constituency in Muzaffarnagar. Election Commission should take cognisance and ensure fair voting,” the party said on X.

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New Delhi:

The fallout of the Congress’ poor show in the Haryana election – which has included a stinging attack from ally Shiv Sena (UBT) before the Maharashtra election – rumbled on Tuesday, with the Samajwadi Party snubbing a seat-share request for by-polls to 10 Uttar Pradesh Assembly seats later this year.

Akhilesh Yadav’s party – a high-profile member of the Congress-led INDIA bloc – has named candidates for six of the 10 seats. The number is significant – the Congress wanted to contest five of the seats, but the SP demurred, pointing to the two parties’ performances in the April-June general election.

The SP won 37 of 62 seats it contested. The Congress contested 17 and won six. Given those numbers (the Congress also scored 109 fewer than the SP in the 2022 state poll) the offer was only three seats.

pic.twitter.com/U8j8UEF40W

— Samajwadi Party (@samajwadiparty) October 9, 2024

The Congress has expressed surprise over the list of six names.

The party’s state-in-charge Avinash Pandey, said, “It is true… no information was given and there has been no talks with the INDIA alliance coordination committee yet. But, as far as announcement of seats and contesting elections is concerned, whatever decision the committee takes will be accepted by us.”

“We are not overconfident in Uttar Pradesh,” he said, stating work to “strengthen and empower the organisation” and prep for the by-polls had begun. “Possibilities (of alliance) always remain…”

#WATCH | Kanpur: On Samajwadi Party releasing names of 6 candidates for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly bypolls, UP Congress in-charge Avinash Pandey says, “…It is true, no information was given to us about it. There has been no discussion with the coordination committee of… pic.twitter.com/0G1xXhg0DB

— ANI (@ANI) October 9, 2024

The Samajwadi Party releasing its list of six candidates now – for a by-poll that has not yet been announced by the Election Commission – list doesn’t just follow the Congress’ horrid time in Haryana.

In Haryana the two parties held talks over sharing of seats – as did the Congress with Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP  – but no agreement was reached in either case, with the Congress’ Bhupinder Hooda being blamed.

That failure to accommodate, as the Sena called it, is widely perceived as one of the reasons for the Congress losing a state that exit polls unanimously predicted it would win.

READ | “Arrogant, Overconfident”: Allies Slam Congress Over Haryana Loss

But the two have been locked in talks over the UP by-polls for some time, underlining the rifts within an INDIA bloc that, in many cases, has failed to convince as a viable and sustainable non-BJP alternative.

The 10 UP by-polls, therefore, are a litmus test, at least for the Congress to continue as INDIA head.

The BJP has already begun planning, eager to claim as many of these seats as possible (not that it needs them to maintain its hold on the government) to build on momentum from Haryana.

There are still two Assembly elections left this year – Maharashtra and Jharkhand – with the all-important Delhi poll, where Mr Kejriwal’s AAP will bid for a fourth straight win, scheduled for early next.

The SP’s snub, meanwhile, has also been seen as a reminder of the Congress refusing to share seats for the Madhya Pradesh election. “… seems Congress doesn’t want to partner with us”, Mr Yadav had said.

As it did in Haryana this month, the SP then fielded its own candidates in Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress would be defeated in Madhya Pradesh and watch as the BJP flipped Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, losing three heartlands states in go to inviting scathing criticism from Mr Yadav.

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also attacked the Congress. Ms Banerjee’s Trinamool also had seat-sharing disputes with the Congress – before the April-June general election. With an eye on poor past performances, she would not surrender more than two of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats to her ‘ally’.

READ | “Defeat Of Congress, Not The People”: Mamata On BJP’s 3-State Win

The Bengal Chief Minister had said then that while the Congress had indeed won Telangana, it could have swept the other two states “if not for votes being taken by INDIA parties”.

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