The Election Commission has announced bypolls to two Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh on September 23rd 2019. The counting of votes will take place the same evening.

The seats fell vacant after Samajwadi Party, Surendra Singh Nagar and Sanjay Seth, resigned to join the Bhartiya Janata Party.  Nagar and Seth resigned on August 2 and August 5, respectively, while their terms are till July 4, 2022, according to the EC.

Both the leaders decided to join the BJP after lauding the party for its moves, especially the revocation of the Article 370 of the constitution, in Jammu and Kashmir. They praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking the big decision.

Nagar is a two-time MP having represented the Gautam Buddha Nagar Lok Sabha in the past, while Seth is a real estate developer based in Uttar Pradesh and was also the Samajwadi Party’s treasurer earlier.

Following the two resignations, the Samajwadi Party has been left with only 10 members in the Rajya Sabha, as against the BJP, which has the highest number of members at 78, in the upper house of the Parliament.

As per the election schedule issued by the Election Commission, the last date for nomination is September 12, while the last date for withdrawal is 16th September.

It may be noted that earlier this month, Neerja Shekhar, a Rajya Sabha member of the Samajwadi Party and son of former Prime Minister Chandrasekhar and Surendra Singh Nagar had also resigned from his party post.

Shekhar was elected unopposed, a senior official declared. He had filed his nomination on August 14 as the BJP candidate for the August 26 Rajya Sabha by-poll from Uttar Pradesh in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the party’s state unit chief Swatantra Dev Singh. Shekhar had contested Lok Sabha Elections from his father’s constituency of Ballia and won twice in 2007 and 2009, but lost in 2014.