Voting begins in Uttar Pradesh for bypolls to nine assembly seats

Lucknow, Nov 20 (PTI) Voting began at 7 am on Wednesday for bypolls to nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh.
    The constituencies going to the polls are Katehari, Karhal, Mirapur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur and Kundarki. The votes will be counted on November 23.
    While eight seats fell vacant following the incumbent MLAs' election to the Lok Sabha, polling in Sisamau is being conducted due to Samajwadi Party lawmaker Irfan Solanki's disqualification from the assembly after his conviction in a criminal case.
    This is the first electoral contest in the state after the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress is not contesting these bypolls and has lent support to the Samajwadi Party, its INDIA bloc ally. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is contesting on all nine seats.
    According to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), more than 34.35 lakh voters -- of whom 15.88 lakh are women -- are eligible to exercise their franchise.
    For peaceful conduct of the polls, arrangements have been made to deploy paramilitary personnel. Voting will close at 5 pm, the CEO's office said in a statement.
    Ninety candidates are in the fray for the bypolls. Ghaziabad has the most candidates in the fray with 14, followed by Khair and Sisamau with five each.
    Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has fielded candidates from Ghaziabad, Kundarki and Mirapur while the Chandrashekhar Azad-led Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) is contesting on all seats except Sisamau.
    The results of the bypolls, however, will not have any impact on the 403-member Uttar Pradesh Assembly.
    At present, the BJP has 251 members in the House, followed by the Samajwadi Party's 105. BJP allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 MLAs, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) eight, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) six and the NISHAD party five.
    The Congress and the Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) have two MLAs each and the BSP has one.
    In the 2022 assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party won from Sisamau, Katehari, Karhal and Kundarki while the Phulpur, Ghaziabad, Majhawan and Khair seats were bagged by the BJP.
    The Mirapur seat was won by the RLD, then an ally of the Samajwadi Party. It has since become a member of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)