By-election to the Kairana Lok Sabha constituency will be held on May 28. It was necessitated by the death of sitting MP, Hukum Dev Singh, of the BJP. In 2014, Singh won this seat in western Uttar Pradesh by a huge margin in a bitterly polarised contest following unprecedented communal riots in the region. Four years on, the party is struggling to defend Kairana against a united opposition. Its candidate, Hukum Dev Singh's daughter Mriganka, is up against the formidable Tabassum Hasan, who is contesting on an RLD ticket and has the support of the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress party as well. Watch the HT video to know what is at stake for the BJP and why this by-election is a crucial test of opposition unity.
