While the by-elections offer CM Yogi Adityanath a chance to redeem his honour after BJP’s dismal UP show in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, these polls will also test whether the Samajwadi Party can maintain its winning momentum from the general elections. A report by Mudit Mathur
The battlelines have been drawn for the by-elections for nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh on 13 November. The INDIA bloc is trusting the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav to throw a direct challenge to firebrand chief minister Yogi Adityanath of the BJP.
These elections have in a way brought Yogi on the front foot after the humiliating setback in the recently held Lok Sabha election. While the Congress party has decided not to contest the by-elections and throw its weight behind the Samajwadi party candidates, Bahujan Samaj Party has decided to contest all nine seats. By-election results will be a pre-indicator of the making of the political landscape of Uttar Pradesh ahead of the 2027 assembly elections.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav emerged as a champion after he managed to change the public perception of his party being a Yadav-based outfit with the unique experiment of inclusion of other castes of backward, Dalits and upper castes and minorities under his umbrella, and secured 37 seats in Lok Sabha. The ticket distribution of the BJP is reflective of toeing the same footprints to counter him in the ongoing by-elections. All the senior BJP leaders are focussing unanimously that these elections are to be fought and won under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
It would be interesting to observe if the pattern of voter sentiment from the recent Lok Sabha elections will remain the same with the changing dynamics within the BJP. Amid discussions of the displeasure of parent ideologue, Rashtriya SwayamSevak Sangh (RSS) chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat, over Lok Sabha results, the recent long meeting of Yogi with him at Mathura ahead of two-day long Akhil Bhartiya Karyakari Mandal meet assumed political significance in view of by-elections.
Yogi will continue to aggressively pitch the Hindutva agenda with his divisionary slogan, “batenege to katenge”– concerning attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh, implying that a division of votes may have a disastrous impact in the polls. RSS Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabalealso endorsed his statement at a press conference in Mathura emphasising promoting unity among Hindus.The RSS meeting was held to further strengthen Hindu unity, social harmony and inclusion.
In the 2022 UP assembly elections, the SP won four of these seats — Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal, and Kundarki. The BJP also bagged four —Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, and Khair. The ninth seat, Meerapur, was won by the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which was then allied with the SP. The RLD is now an NDA partner.
The Congress said it would support the candidates of Samajwadi Party’s in the upcoming byelections for the Assembly seats in the state. At a press conference held at the AICC headquarters, AICC general secretary and UP Congress in-charge Avinash Pande and State President Ajay Rai said the party workers and leaders would unconditionally work to ensure the victory of Samajwadi Party candidates or that of other INDIA bloc parties.
Pande said the prevailing political circumstances were not about strengthening the organisation or the party but about protecting the Constitution. “It’s not about contesting on two or four seats. It’s about contesting together to achieve our aim. A mutual agreement was reached between the two parties against the power which is trying to weaken the Constitution,” Pande said.
The decision was arrived at after consultations among Rai, Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhna Mishra, AICC general secretary organisation KC Venugopal, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, together with the Samajwadi Party leadership.
On the other hand, Akhilesh Yadav got the full backing of the INDIA alliance and its major constituent, the Congress party whose leadership decided not to join the fray on the two seats offered by the Samajwadi Party where it had a very bleak chance to win. This large-heartedness is seen as a course correction from the Congress Party, which took a lesson from its unexpected defeat in the Haryana assembly polls. Now, stakes are high for Akhilesh Yadav to prove his political acumen in the by-elections.
Enthusiastic over the response from the Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh posted on his X handle a photo of Rahul, saying, “We have decided to save ‘Constitution, Reservation, Harmony.’ We have to build the country of Bapu-Babasaheb-Lohia’s dreams.” “It is not about seats but about winning”. Under this strategy, the joint candidates of ‘India Alliance’ will contest on all the 9 seats on the Samajwadi Party’s election symbol ‘cycle’. Akhilesh claimed.” “Samajwadi Party’s strength has increased manifold with the support of Congress party’s top leadership and booth level workers,” he added.
The by-elections will test whether the INDIA bloc, SP to be precise, is able to maintain its 2024 general election momentum or not. It will also be a prestige battle for Yogi Adityanath after the Lok Sabha results and ahead of the 2027 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. Despite the high stakes for both parties, UP CM Yogi Adityanath has to prove the influence of his governance on voters as he was blamed by his detractors for the debacle in the Lok Sabha polls. Poll results are expected to galvanise a new political scenario within unsettled leadership of the party to end the infighting. Here is how the BJP and the SP, the two main opponents, are squared up against each other at the nine seats going to the polls.
Karhal: Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin and former MP Tej Pratap Yadav is contesting as SP candidate from the family stronghold in Mainpuri. The BJP has fielded Anujesh Yadav as its candidate. Akhilesh Yadav won the Karhal assembly seat in 2022. The by-poll was necessitated after Akhilesh won the Lok Sabha election from Kannauj in 2024.
Meerapur: The SP has announced Sumbul Rana as its candidate from Meerapur seat in Muzaffarnagar. She is the daughter-in-law of former Muzaffarnagar MP Kadir Rana and daughter of BSP leader Munkad Ali. The BJP ally, RLD, has fielded Mithilesh Pal as the candidate from here.
Ghaziabad: The BJP has given the ticket to Sanjeev Sharma from the Ghaziabad seat, which neighbours Delhi. Ghaziabad is one of the five assembly seats in the Ghaziabad district. The SP has fielded Singh Raj Jatav from here. BJP’s Atul Garg won the seat in 2022. Garg won the Lok Sabha polls in 2024 from Ghaziabad.
Sisamau: The SP has fielded Naseem Solanki from the Sisamau seat in Kanpur Nagar. She is the wife of disqualified SP MLA Irfan Solanki, who won the seat in 2022, and was disqualified after his conviction in a criminal case. The BJP has fielded Suresh Awasthi from the seat.
Phulpur: The SP has fielded Mohd Mustafa Siddiqui from the Phulpur seat won by BJP’s Praveen Patel in the 2022 assembly polls. Patel is now a Lok Sabha MP from Phulphur. The BJP has fielded former Karchana MLA Deepak Patel from Phulphur in by-election.
Katehri: Shobhawati Verma is the SP candidate from Katehri seat in Ambedkarnagar. She is the wife of SP MP from Ambedkarnagar, Lalji Verma, who won the Katehri assembly seat in 2022. The BJP has fielded Dharmraj Nishad, a three-time former MLA and former minister in the earlier BSP government, who joined the BJP two years ago.
Kundarki: The SP has fielded former MLA, Haji Mohd Rizwan here. The BJP has once again fielded Ramveer Thakur from Kundarki seat in Moradabad . Thakur lost the seat twice in the past
Majhawan: Suchismita Maurya is the BJP candidate from the Majhawan seat in Mirzapur. The SP has fielded Jyoti Bind, daughter of former Majhawan MLA and former Bhadohi MP, Ramesh Bind.
Khair: The SP has announced Dr Charu Kain as its candidate from Khair seat in Aligarh. The BJP has fielded Surendra Diler, the son of former MP Rajveer Diler from here.
