While Maharashtra and Haryana went to polling for assembly seats, election process began for by-elections to 11 Assembly segments in Uttar Pradesh also, on Monday.
The polling began at 7 am in the morning under tight security, and will conclude at around 6 pm.
The fate of 109 candidates will be decided in the by-polls that are being held in Gangoh, Rampur, Iglas (SC), Lucknow Cantonment, Govind Nagar, Manikpur, Pratapgarh, Zaidpur (SC), Jalalpur, Balha (SC) and Ghosi.
Eight of the 11 seats were held earlier by the BJP and one by BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal). The seats of Rampur and Jalalpur (Ambedkarnagar) were held by the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, respectively. The BJP, BSP, SP and the Congress have fielded their candidates on all the seats.
The by-elections were necessitated after some MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha and resigned as members of the state Assembly. The Assembly constituency of Ghosi became vacant following the resignation of sitting MLA Phagu Chauhan after he was appointed as the Governor of Bihar.
The bypolls are being seen as a contest between the BJP’s Swatantradev Singh and the Congress’s Ajay Kumar Lallu, both of them keen to hit a victory note as their parties’ Uttar Pradesh unit chiefs to boost the morale of their workers before the 2022 state election.
The Samajwadi Party is contesting from all 11 seats across Uttar Pradesh, but its chief – Akhilesh Yadav – held just one election rally in the Rampur assembly constituency ahead of the by-elections. He was campaigning on behalf of party leader Tazeen Fatma after it was left vacant due to her husband, Azam Khan, moving to the Lok Sabha.