Bypoll Assembly seats Polling will be held on May 28

With the opposition gearing up to corner it in another battle of ballots in the bypoll to Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur Assembly seats, the BJP seems to be precariously poised with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s prestuge at stake after the drubbing the party suffered in Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls.

The polling for the bypolls will be held on May 28 and the result will be declared on May 31.

Bypoll in Kairana Lok Sabha and Noorpur Assembly seats were necessitated by the death of sitting BJP MP Hukum Singh and sitting BJP MLA, Lokendra Singh.

The Samajwadi Party played an astute move by allowing its candidate to contest Kairana election on a RLD ticket while its own candidate will contest the Noorpur election on SP’s symbol.

A senior BJP leader said that the party was alive to its challenge. In Gorakhpur and Phulpur we were caught unawares, but this time we will catch the bull by its horn. He did not elaborate the `mantra’ of success but said that the party workers were in touch with people at the village level and the response was very good.

What has made BJP jittery is the spate of encounters that took place in western UP, particularly the killing of Sumit Gujjar, whom the police admit was a case of mistaken identity. The encounter deaths could negatively impact the party’s electoral psopects. 

“Law and order has improved because of these encounters. The incidents of extortions have come down and this will go in our favour,” the BJP leader said.

The BJP was likely to play the emotional  card this election as it would field late Hukum Singh’s daughter Mriganka from Kairana Lok Sabha seat and Lokendra Singh’s widow could be the BJP candidate from Noorpur assembly constituency.

Mriganka had contested the Assembly election from Kairana segment but lost in 2017.