Lucknow: Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) was hoping to make significant gains in the bypolls held to seven seats in Uttar Pradesh for some momentum ahead of the 2022 assembly elections. But the party managed to retain one seat while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the remaining six. Even as the SP had been the lone gainer in the bypolls in the state since 2017, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and other top leaders of the party stayed away from campaigning. BJP’s top leaders, including chief minister Yogi Adityanath, campaigned extensively.
Lucknow: Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) was hoping to make significant gains in the bypolls held to seven seats in Uttar Pradesh for some momentum ahead of the 2022 assembly elections. But the party managed to retain one seat while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the remaining six. Even as the SP had been the lone gainer in the bypolls in the state since 2017, former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and other top leaders of the party stayed away from campaigning. BJP’s top leaders, including chief minister Yogi Adityanath, campaigned extensively.
Political analyst SK Dwivedi said the bypolls results have once again established that the BJP continues to be the dominant party in the state and it will be an uphill task for SP to wrest power from it. Lucky Yadav was the lone winner for SP. He managed to retain Malhani (Jaunpur) constituency for SP that his late father Parasnath Yadav earlier held. Lucky Yadav won by a thin margin of 4,632 votes.
In Naugawan Sadat (Amroha), SP’s Javed Abbas led the tally for most of the day but eventually lost to BJP’s Sangeeta Chauhan. The SP earlier in 2018 won Gorakhpur, Phulpur, Kairana Lok Sabha bypolls as well as Noorpur assembly seat. In 2019, of the by-polls held to 11 seats, SP retained Rampur and wrested Jalalpur from Bahujan Samaj Party and Zaidpur from BJP. The BJP won the remaining eight seats.
