Bypolls to three Lok Sabha seats — Azamgarh and Rampur in Uttar Pradesh and Sangrur in Punjab — were held on Thursday.
It is a crucial test for both the Samajwadi Party and the Aam Aadmi Party. The results, which will be declared on Sunday, will reveal if the Samajwadi Party, in spite of its defeat in the Assembly elections, can hold on to its bastions. For the AAP, the elections, coming on the heels of the murder of Sidhu Moosewala which drew allegations of law and order breakdown in the State, will test whether the popularity of the Bhagwant Mann government can withstand the outrage.
Bypolls in Uttar Pradesh were necessitated by the resignation of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and senior leader Azam Khan after both chose to retain the Assembly seats they won in the recent elections.
The BJP is particularly hopeful of winning the Rampur seat, considering it has equal number of both Hindu and Muslim voters. It has fielded Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi who recently joined the party. Asim Raja, handpicked by Mr. Khan, is the SP candidate. The Mayawati-led BSP is not contesting from Rampur.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath spent the last day of campaigning here. Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi too has been camping here for many days. He is also a voter from the constituency.
The Rampur parliamentary constituency comprises Assembly segments of Rampur, Suar, Chamraua, Bilaspur and Milak. In the Assembly elections held this year, the SP won from Rampur, Suar and Chamraua, while the BJP won Bilaspur and Milak seats.
Meanwhile, in Azamgarh, it is a straight contest between SP president Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin Dharmendra Yadav and BJP candidate Dinesh Lal Yadav ‘Nirhua’, a popular Bhojpuri actor-singer. Akhilesh Yadav had defeated Dinesh Lal in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls by a handsome margin. All the four Assembly constituencies — Azamgarh, Mubarakpur, Sagdi, Gopalpur and Mehnagar — falling in this Lok Sabha seat were won by the SP in the recent Assembly elections.
Neither Akhilesh Yadav nor his wife Dimple campaigned for the bypolls, though the party machinery was parked in both the constituencies. The party is confident of winning both the seats.
Bypoll in Sangrur, Punjab, was called after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann vacated the seat on winning the Assembly polls. Till 5:00 pm, Sangrur recorded a voter turnout of 36.40 per cent, which is far below its 2019 record of 72.44 per cent. The low turnout prompted Mr. Mann to ask for extension of voting time, arguing that people were busy because it was the paddy sowing season. The voting time was extended till 7:00 pm, but the Election Commission of India has sought an explanation from the State panel
Mr. Mann has held the seat twice, winning in 2014 and 2019. AAP government has been on the backfoot since Congress leader and popular singer Sidhu Moosewala's murder.
Assembly bypolls
Polls were also held for seven Assembly seats spread across six States. In Tripura, the elections were marred by incidents of violence.
One of the seven Assembly seats going to polls is Rajinder Nagar in Delhi, vacated by Raghav Chadha of the AAP who became a Rajya Sabha member recently. The remaining assembly seats where bypolls will be held are Mandar in Jharkhand, Atmakur in Andhra Pradesh, and Agartala, Town Bordowali, Surma and Jubarajnagar in Tripura.
In Tripura, a policeman was stabbed and an online media journalist was beaten up in separate incidents of violence during the polling in four Assembly constituencies. There were also incidents of violent mobs restricting voters’ entry into polling stations. These incidents were reported despite the presence of paramilitary force in all polling stations of the four constituencies.
Congress, CPI(M) and the Trinamool Congress have alleged that BJP cadres unleashed terror and planned assaults, booth jamming and rigging to reduce the elections to a farce. BJP denied the allegations and said the polls are taking place under the close watch of the Election Commission.
