Uttar Pradesh by-polls: BJP holds key meet in Delhi to finalise decision on seat-sharing

New Delhi: A key meeting is being held among BJP leadership in Delhi to finalise the tickets for the 10 seats that are headed to by-polls in Uttar Pradesh. A seat-sharing arrangement with the Jayant Chaudhary-led Rashtriya Lok Dal and Nishad Party will be discussed. 

Apart from BJP president J P Nadda and home minister Amit Shah, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy CMs Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, as well as organisational general secretary Dharampal Singh will be attending the meeting. 

BJP’s UP unit has shortlisted 27 names for the 9 seats, which will be discussed. But apart from that the Nishad party is keen on the Kathari and Majhwan seats, while RLD is eyeing the Mirapur and Khair seats. 

Bypolls for ten seats will be held with most of the sitting MLAs in these seats being elected to the Lok Sabha in 2024. These include the Karhal, Milkipur, Ghaziabad, Sisamau, Khair, Phulpur, and Kundarki seats, besides Mirapur, Khair, Kathari and Majhwan. 

The Samajwadi Party had already announced candidates in six seats – Tej Pratap Yadav (Karhal), Nasim Solanki (Sisamau), Ajit Prasad (Milkipur), Mustafa Siddiqi (Phulpur), Shobhawati Verma (Katehari), and Dr Jyoti Bind (Majhwan), leaving the rest for the Congress. While SP had won five of these seats in 2022, BJP had won 4 and RLD, 1. 

SP president Akhilesh Yadav, who is now the Kannauj MP, was the sitting MLA from Karhal, while Lalji Verma was the Katehari MLA before being elected the Ambedkar Nagar MP. Ayodhya MP Awadhesh Prasad was the Milkipur MLA, while Zia-ur Rahman Barq was the Kundarki MLA before he became the Sambhal MP.