UP Bypolls 2022: Samajwadi Party eyes saving bastions; Mulayam's legacy and Azam Khan's turf at stake

Months after the BJP retained power in Uttar Pradesh with a thumping victory, the ruling party will once again face a direct challenge from the Samajwadi Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance on Monday as one Lok Sabha and two Assembly constituencies go to by-polls. Notably, the BSP and the Congress are not contesting from these seats. 

Polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8. According to the state Election Commission, 24.43 lakh people are eligible to exercise their voting rights in the bypolls. Voting will take place at 3,062 polling booths located in 1,945 polling centres.

While the bypoll to the Mainpuri parliamentary seat is taking place due to the death of Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, in Rampur Sadar and in Khatauli, the polls were necessitated after SP MLA Azam Khan and BJP MLA Vikram Singh Saini were disqualified following their conviction in different cases.

While Khan was disqualified after a court awarded him three-year imprisonment in a 2019 hate speech case, Saini lost his membership of the assembly after his conviction in a 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots case.

The outcomes of the bypolls will not have any impact on the central or the state governments as the BJP enjoys a comfortable majority at both levels. However, wins would provide a psychological advantage ahead of the 2024 general elections.

For the Samajwadi Party, the Mainpuri Lok Sabha bypoll will be all about taking forward Mulayam Singh Yadav’s legacy since the seat has been a SP stronghold since 1996. The party has fielded Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav. Her selection is seen as an attempt to unite party cadres ahead of the bypoll. 

The Mainpuri parliamentary constituency has five assembly segments -- Mainpuri, Bhongaon, Kishni, Karhal and Jaswant Nagar. In the 2022 assembly elections, the SP won the Karhal, Kishni and the Jaswant Nagar seats, while the BJP won the Mainpuri and the Bhogaon seats.  

The BJP has fielded Raghuraj Singh Shakya against Dimple Yadav. The BJP candidate, who was once a close associate of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party chief and Akhilesh Yadav's uncle Shivpal Singh Yadav, joined the saffron party ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls held earlier this year.

The BJP in Rampur Sadar has fielded Akash Saxena, who is the son of former party MLA Shiv Bahadur Saxena, against senior SP leader Azam Khan's protege Asim Raja, while in Khatauli, the fight is between Vikram Singh Saini's wife Rajkumari Saini and Madan Bhaiya from the RLD.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, and senior leader Bhupendra Chaudhary were among the top campaigners for the BJP.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who did not canvass for earlier bypolls in the Azamgarh and the Rampur parliamentary seats, led an aggressive campaign for his wife in Mainpuri and attended a rally along with Khan and Dalit leader Chandrasekhar Azad in Rampur Sadar to seek votes for the party's nominee Raza.

RLD president Jayant Chaudhary stayed put in Khatauli to garner support for his party's nominee.