Hamirpur bypoll on September 23 after Chandel's conviction

LUCKNOW: The Election Commission on Sunday announced byelection to Hamirpur assembly seat on September 23. The assembly seat fell vacant following the disqualification of BJP MLA Ashok Chandel, who has been convicted in a 22-year-old murder case. Interestingly, BJP is yet to expel Chandel from the party and the MLA's photo figures prominently on its official website.

The commission will issue a notification for Hamirpur seat on August 28, while the last date for filing nomination is September 4. Result would be declared on September 27. Hamirpur is the first of the total 12 assembly seats where byelections are due. However, dates for the rest 11 are yet to be announced by the poll panel.

Bypolls to 11 other seats have been necessitated following election of sitting legislators to the Lok Sabha this year. Eleven seats where byelections are due include Rampur, Jalalpur, Balha, Kanpur, Jaidpur, Lucknow Cantt, Gangoh, Tundla, Banda, Iglas and Pratapgarh. The byelections are of utmost importance to all political parties, especially BJP which saw its nine legislators getting elected to the Lok Sabha.

SP MLA Azam Khan from Rampur and BSP MLA from Jalalpur in Ambedkarnagar, Reitesh Pandey too got elected to the Lower House of Parliament.

The bypolls are essentially important for BJP, which had a bad experience in the past after SP and BSP joined hands and defeated the saffron party in Gorakhpur, the home turf of CM Yogi Adityanath.

The ruling party also suffered a humiliating defeat on Phulpur seat vacated by deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya , Kairana and Noorpur in 2018. This time, however, SP and BSP have severed their tie-up and would be contesting the byelections separately, triggering a multi-corner fight between SP, BSP, Congress and BJP. Political experts said a multi-corner fight may benefit BJP, which is essentially relying on division of votes between the two UP regional satraps, SP and BSP.