UP to witness bypolls to 8 Assembly seats soon

With eight Assembly seats falling vacant in the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, the state may witness a mini-Assembly election in the coming weeks.

Sources said that the bypolls might be held along with the Bihar polls.

Five of these eight seats fell vacant after the death of sitting members.

The five members who died include two Ministers Kamal Rani Varun, who held the Ghatampur seat and Chetan Chauhan, who represented Amroha's Naugawan seat.

Earlier, Virendra Singh Sirohi (Bulandshahr) passed away on March 2 and Samajwadi Party's Paras Nath Yadav, who represented Malhani in Jaunpur, died on June 12.

BJP MLA from Deoria Janmejai Singh died on August 22.

The other three seats declared vacant include the one held by BJP member Kuldeep Singh Sengar (Bangarmau) who was disqualified after being convicted in a rape case.

The Swar seat in Rampur was declared vacant after the High Court declared the election of SP's Abdullah Azam invalid.

Earlier, the Tundla Assembly seat of Firozabad was declared vacant after S. P. Singh Baghel got elected to the Lok Sabha from Agra.

The bypoll to a vacant seat in the State Assembly is generally held within six months from the date of vacancy, but by-elections have not been held due to the corona pandemic.

Of the eight seats that are vacant, six belong to the BJP and two to the Samajwadi Party (SP).