In high-stakes UP bypolls, BJP aims to regain lost ground, SP looks to keep LS momentum

In the wake of the Lok Sabha elections, decks have been cleared in Uttar Pradesh for by-elections to 10 Assembly seats across the state. Nine of these seats were vacated as their incumbent MLAs quit to retain the Lok Sabha constituencies they won in the recent polls. The remaining one, Sishamau, was vacated following the disqualification of its SP MLA Irfan Solanki.

The situation in these 10 seats seems to have undergone a significant change following the Lok Sabha poll results, even as the ruling BJP-led NDA and a resurgent Opposition INDIA alliance led by the Samajwadi Party (SP) work out their strategies and weigh their options to take on each other in the bypolls.

Of the state’s 80 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP won 33 with its allies RLD and Apna Dal (Soneylal) getting, respectively, two and one, while the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP bagged 37 seats with its INDIA partner Congress winning six.

In the 2022 Assembly polls, out of 493 seats, the BJP had won 255 as against the SP’s 111 and the Congress’s two.

Of the 10 Assembly seats bound for the upcoming bypolls, five were won by the SP in the 2022 elections, three by the BJP and one each by its NDA allies NISHAD party and RLD (an SP partner in 2022). While the BJP’s allies are looking to contest from their respective seats in the bypolls, recent election results have also made the Congress hopeful of contesting a couple of seats as part of its alliance with the SP. Here is a look at the current equations in the 10 seats.

The Karhal seat in Mainpuri district was won by Akhilesh Yadav in the 2022 polls, when he defeated BJP candidate S P Singh Baghel, who has now been elected on his party ticket from the Agra parliamentary constituency. Karhal has been a stronghold of the SP, which