UP Bypolls: Suar and Chhanbey Assembly seats to see voting on May 10

Bypolls on Uttar Pradesh's two Assembly seats -- Suar and Chhanbey –- will be held on May 10 and counting of votes will take place on May 13, election office said here on Wednesday.

Notification for the bypoll on the two seats in Rampur and Mirzapur districts will be issued on April 13 and the last date for filing of nominations will be April 20, Chief Electoral Officer Ajay Mishra said.

Bypoll on the Suar and Chhanbey seats have been necessitated following the disqualification of Azam Khan's son and sitting SP MLA Abdullah Azam after his conviction in a 15-year-old case and the death of sitting Apna Dal (Sonelal) MLA Rahul Kol.

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Though the by-election will have no impact on the present government which enjoys a comfortable majority in the 403-member UP Assembly, it assumes significance as the two major political players in the state, BJP and Samajwadi Party, will be going all out for the win, especially SP, which will be out to test its popularity one year into the formation of second Adityanath government.

After defeating Azam Khan in his stronghold Rampur, BJP will be looking forward to making a clean sweep by annexing the Suar seat too.

BJP recently demolished over a four-decade-old SP leader's hold on Rampur Sadar Assembly seat and it would be interesting to see whether his son's seat too goes out of the family hands.

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In the 2022 Assembly polls, Abdullah Azam had defeated BJP ally Apna Dal (S) candidate Haider Ali, son of Congressman and a known critic of Azam’s family, Kazim Ali Khan, by over 60,000 votes.

Earlier in 2017, Abdullah had won the seat by defeating BJP's Laxmi Saini by over 53,000 votes.

But on both the occasions, he got disqualified — in the first instance, because of an alleged anomaly in his birth certificate and in second, due to his conviction in the 15-year-old Chhajlet incident.

Chhanbey reserved seat had been won by Rahul Kol, a son of former Robertsganj MP Pakauri Lal Kol, in 2017.

He won it again in 2022 as a candidate from Union minister of State Anupriya Patel headed Apna Dal (s), which is an ally of the ruling BJP.