As UP, Bihar Vote In Bypolls Today, A Chance To Test Alliances: 10 Points
By-elections are being held in Gorakhpur - formerly held by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath - and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. In Bihar, voting is being held for bypolls to the Araria parliamentary seat.
By-elections to three Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are being held today
Lucknow/Patna: Uttar Pradesh is voting for by-elections to two parliamentary seats - Gorakhpur and Phulpur - while polling is on in Bihar for by-elections to the Araria parliamentary seat and two assembly seats. Thirty per cent per cent of the electorate had voted in Gorakhpur - vacated by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath - till 1 pm while a low 19 per cent turnout was recorded in Phulpur till that time. "Our victory margins will be as big as in 2014," Mr Adityanath said today. The bypolls are being seen as a prestige battle for the BJP; it will also test the new electoral arrangement between arch rivals, the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). In Bihar, it is the first electoral test for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after he walked out of the "grand alliance" last year and teamed up with the BJP.
Here is your 10-point cheatsheet on the big by-elections:
Yogi Adityanath represented the Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat five times in a row till he took over as chief minister last year after the BJP swept the assembly polls. This time, the Chief Minister campaigned extensively for the BJP's Upendra Dutt Shukla who is the party's regional head.
In Phulpur, vacated by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, the BJP has fielded Kaushalendra Patel, a former mayor of Varanasi, the Prime Minister's constituency. The seat, once represented by former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was won by the BJP for the first time in 2014.
The bypolls in Uttar Pradesh will see, for the first time in decades, the coming together of bitter political rivals SP and BSP. Ms Mayawati has not fielded any candidate in the by-elections but has announced that her party workers "will vote for the candidate who is best positioned to defeat the BJP".
The arrangement is being seen as a test case for a broader opposition alliance ahead of the 2019 general elections. The Congress that had an alliance with the SP in last year's assembly polls is going it alone this time.
"Their alliance is bound to fail," Yogi Adityanath told NDTV, soon after he cast his vote, terming it "impure and opportunistic". Till 9 am, voter turnout has been recorded at 6.8 per cent in Gorakhpur, while it is 4.8 per cent in Phulpur, the joint chief electoral officer said in a statement.
The bypolls in Bihar are seen as a direct battle between Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav. Mr Yadav has led the RJD's campaign in the absence of his father and party boss Lalu Prasad who is in jail in a corruption case. Mr Yadav has repeatedly accused Mr Kumar of betraying the mandate of Bihar's voters who, he says, voted for the RJD-JD(U)-Congress combine in the 2015 assembly elections.
In Araria, a seat that fell vacant due to the death of RJD strongman Mohd Taslimuddin, the RJD has fielded his son Sarfaraz Alam, eyeing a chunk of the Muslim-Yadav voters who make up more than half the electorate. The BJP has fielded Pradip Singh who had won the seat in 2009 and finished runner-up in 2014. A 31 per cent voter turnout was recorded in Araria till noon, reports news agency IANS.
In Jehanabad, where assembly by-elections are taking place due to the death of RJD lawmaker Mundrika Singh Yadav, the RJD has fielded his son Uday Yadav. He is in a direct contest with the JD(U)'s Abhiram Sharma who had won the seat in 2010 when his party was an ally of the BJP.
The Bhabua assembly seat was vacated after the death of the BJP's Anand Bhushan Pandey. The BJP-JD(U) ruling alliance has fielded his widow Rinki Rani Pandey and hopes to win the seat that has a big chunk of Dalits voters. The Congress has put up Shambhu Patel, banking on the popularity of former Lok Sabha speaker and Dalit leader Meira Kumar, who has earlier represented Sasaram, the parliamentary constituency of which Bhabua is an assembly segment.
Voting for all the seats will be held between 7 am and 5 pm. The results will be declared on March 14.
