E-Paper
Ghosi bypoll: Stage set for voting in first INDIA vs NDA contest in Uttar Pradesh
This will be the seventh election in Ghosi since 2012. The assembly constituency has nearly 4.38 lakh voters ; BJP candidate Dara Singh Chauhan is pitted against Sudhakar Singh of the Samajwadi Party
In the first NDA vs INDIA bloc electoral faceoff in Uttar Pradesh, voters will exercise their franchise in the Ghosi assembly bypoll in Mau district of the state’s Purvanchal region on Tuesday as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looks to wrest the seat from the Samajwadi Party (SP).
This will be the seventh election in Ghosi since 2012. During this period, voting has taken place in three assembly elections, two Lok Sabha elections, and one assembly bypoll. The previous bypoll was held in 2019 when the then BJP MLA Phagu Chauhan was made Bihar governor. The current bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of the then SP MLA Dara Singh Chauhan, an OBC leader who returned to the BJP in July. Chauhan, a minister in the Yogi government’s first term, had resigned from the council of ministers on January 12 last year and joined the SP.
Now a BJP nominee, Chauhan is pitted against the Samajwadi Party’s Sudhakar Singh, a Bhumihar Rajput.
Ghosi assembly constituency has nearly 4.38 lakh voters and 90,000 of them are Muslims, 1.5 lakh OBCs, 60,000 Dalits and 77,000 from the upper castes -- 45,000 Bhumihars, 16,000 Rajputs and 6,000 Brahmins, according to estimates.
Polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm, and votes counted on September 8. Besides the BJP and SP candidates, there are eight other nominees in the fray. The Bahujan Samaj Party has not fielded any candidate. The BJP-led NDA includes Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), NISHAD party, and Apna Dal (S). Besides the SP, the INDIA alliance here includes Congress, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), CPI, CPI-M, CPI-MLA, Janta Dal (United), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The Opposition also has the backing of non-INDIA ally Suheldev Swabhiman Party (SSP). The bypoll result will have no bearing on the BJP government, which enjoys a comfortable majority in the 403-member state legislative assembly. Nevertheless, its outcome could be an indicator of what is in store in the 2024 elections to the 543-member Lok Sabha. Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to the Lower House of Parliament.
The bypoll will be an opportunity for the ruling BJP dispensation to assert its hold on Uttar Pradesh. If the SP registers a win in Ghosi, it will strengthen Akhilesh Yadav’s position and role within the opposition INDIA alliance and seal his candidature for leading the bloc in the state during the general elections.
Akhilesh Yadav has already called it an INDIA vs. NDA battle “that is not just a bypoll but an indicator to the 2024”.
Those who canvassed for Chauhan include chief minister Yogi Adityanath, deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak and other leaders of the BJP-led NDA, including nearly 15 U.P. and central ministers. Seeking support for Chauhan, Adityanath on September 2 said only those who witnessed the 2005 Mau riots can understand the importance of Ghosi.“At that time, the SP was in power and it could not do anything. Now, those who instigated the riots are seen begging for their lives in a wheelchair,” he had said in an apparent reference to gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari, a five-time MLA from Mau. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav and Ram Gopal Yadav were among Sudhakar Singh’s main campaigners. Both the BJP and the SP have petitioned the Election Commission over alleged malpractices. On August 20, a youth threw ink at Chauhan when he was being welcomed by BJP supporters at Adri Chatti in Kopaganj block.
