Yogi Adityanath, state BJP leaders meet Nadda, Shah in Delhi to brainstorm over Uttar Pradesh assembly bypolls

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath and state BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary discussed the selection of candidates for bypolls to 10 assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh with the party’s national president JP Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah, in New Delhi on Sunday.
It was decided at the meeting that the BJP will contest nine assembly seats, leaving the Meerapur seat in Muzaffarnagar for its ally, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, according to people privy to the matter.
Adityanath, Chaudhary and deputy chief ministers Brajesh Pathak, Keshav Prasad Maurya, besides the party’s state general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh, were in the national capital to attend the high-profile meeting with Nadda and Shah at the BJP national president’s residence.
With the state BJP having almost finalised the candidates, Nadda and Shah asked the chief minister and state BJP chief about the selection process and the rationale behind it. All 10 assembly seats, including Milkipur in Ayodhya, were discussed during the meeting.
“Names of candidates on all 10 assembly seats have been finalised. Before announcing them, the state leadership discussed them with the party’s central leadership today,” a senior BJP leader said.
“The election process will be completed before December 7. We expect the Election Commission of India to announce the dates soon. Preparations have been done for the elections and even the machines (EVMs) to be used have been checked,” Navdeep Rinwa, chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh, had said on October 4.
The assembly seats for which bypolls will be held include Milkipur (Ayodhya), Katehri (Ambedkarnagar), Karhal (Mainpuri), Meerapur (Muzaffarnagar),Ghaziabad, Majhawan (Mirzapur), Sisamau (Kanpur Nagar), Khair (Aligarh), Phulpur (Prayagraj) and Kundarki (Moradabad).
Nine of these seats fell vacant after the election of the sitting MLAs to the Lok Sabha in June. One seat, Sisamau in Kanpur Nagar, fell vacant after the conviction of the SP’s Haji Irfan Solanki in a criminal case.
Five of the 10 assembly seats were held by the SP, three by the BJP and one each by the NISHAD party and the RLD. RLD MP Chandan Chauhan was sitting MLA from Meerapur before he won the Bijnor Lok Sabha seat.
The Samajwadi Party has already declared candidates for six seats and has said it will contest the bypolls with the Congress, its ally in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.