Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a roadshow in support of BJP candidate Sanjeev Sharma ahead of the Ghaziabad Assembly constituency bypoll, at Vijaynagar in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. Photo: PTI Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a roadshow in support of BJP candidate Sanjeev Sharma ahead of the Ghaziabad Assembly constituency bypoll, at Vijaynagar in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024. Photo: PTI The bypolls for 14 seats across Uttar Pradesh (UP), Punjab, and Kerala are set to take place on November 20. With the conclusion of campaigns on Monday, political parties are bracing for intense contests in key constituencies across both states.
In Uttar Pradesh, nine assembly seats are up for grabs, including several that were vacated after sitting legislators were elected to the Lok Sabha earlier this year. The stakes are high for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling party in UP, as it faced an unexpected setback in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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The constituencies heading to the polls include Ghaziabad, Khair (Aligarh), Kundarki (Moradabad), Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar), Phulpur (Allahabad), Katehari (Ambedkarnagar), Sisamau (Kanpur), Karhal (Mainpuri), and Majhawan (Mirzapur). These seats reflect a cross-section of the state’s diverse political and regional dynamics.
Political observers view UP bypolls as a precursor to the much-anticipated 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. For the SP, these bypolls represent an opportunity to reclaim lost ground, and for the BJP - a battle of prestige.
Out of the nine constituencies, Karhal holds the most importance for the Samajwadi Party as it is considered to be the stronghold of the Yadav family. The seat was vacated after the SP president Akhilesh Yadav was elected to Lok Sabha from Kannauj this year.
Akhilesh Yadav has fielded his nephew and former Member of Parliament (MP) Tej Pratap to contest from the key constituency. On the other hand, the BJP has fielded Anujesh Yadav, a former zilla panchayat office-bearer, and a loyal BJP worker, in a bid to break the Yadav family’s dominance in the region.
The Congress has largely stayed on the sidelines in these bypolls, a consequence of its poor performance in the Haryana elections which weakened its partnership with the SP. Although Congress had initially demanded five out of 10 constituency seats (now only nine seats are going for polls), it was left with no representation in the bypolls after the seat-sharing arrangements broke down.
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While UP remains in the spotlight, November 20 bypolls will also witness voting in Kerala and Punjab. In Kerala, the elections will be held only for the Palakkad seat while in Punjab, four Assembly constituencies will go to the polls on Wednesday — Gidderbaha, Barnala, Chabbewal, and Dera Baba Nanak. The sitting MLAs contested and won Lok Sabha seats in 2024, necessitating bypolls for these seats.
Punjab’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is hoping to extend its hold on these constituencies, as the ruling party has historically had a strong showing in by-elections.
On November 13, 31 assembly seats across 10 states which included seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two in Madhya Pradesh, and one each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala, and Meghalaya.
The most important of them all was Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, where Priyanka Gandhi made her electoral debut. In Sikkim, the ruling Sikkim Krantikari Morcha already won two seats unopposed.
The bypolls for 14 seats across Uttar Pradeshpogo88, Punjab, and Kerala are scheduled to be held on Wednesday, November 20. The results for all the bypolls will be announced on November 23.
