UP Assembly bypolls: Samajwadi Party announces candidates for three seats

The party is yet to announce its candidate for the Lucknow East Assembly constituency though.

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party on Friday declared its three candidates for the bypolls, which will be held on four assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh along with the Lok Sabha elections.

In a post in Hindi on X, the Samajwadi Party declared Avadhesh Kumar Verma as its candidate for the Dadraul assembly constituency, Rakesh Yadav from Gainsari assembly constituency and Vijay Singh Gond from Duddhi assembly constituency.

The party is yet to announce its candidate for the Lucknow East assembly constituency, SP's chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary told PTI on Friday.

Bypoll to four assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will be held in four phases simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections.

The four assembly constituencies where bypolls will be held are Lucknow East, Dadraul in Shahjahanpur district, Gainsari in Balrampur district and Duddhi in Sonbhadra district.

On Saturday, while announcing the schedule of the assembly bypolls, Uttar Pradesh's Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa had said that voting in the Dadraul assembly constituency will take place on May 13, during the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls.

Polling in Lucknow East assembly constituency will be held on May 20, during the fifth phase of the general elections.

The voters of the Gainsari assembly seat will exercise their franchise in the bypoll on May 25, the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha polls, while by-elections in the Duddhi Assembly segment will be held on June 1, the seventh phase of the general elections.

The bypoll in the Lucknow East assembly constituency was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA Ashutosh Tandon on November 9, 2023, at the age of 63.

A three-time MLA from the seat, Tandon was a Cabinet minister in the first government of Yogi Adityanath.

The assembly seat of Dadraul fell vacant following the death of BJP MLA Manvendra Singh on January 5, following a prolonged illness. He was 70.

Having been with the Congress for a long time, Singh joined the BJP in 2017 and became an MLA from Dadraul. He retained his seat in the 2022 polls.

Similarly, the Gainsari assembly constituency became vacant following the demise of sitting Samajwadi Party MLA Shiv Pratap Yadav on January 26, at the age of 74. Yadav had started his political career from Lok Dal and was a four-time MLA from Gainsari.

Duddhi assembly constituency, reserved for Scheduled Tribes, fell vacant following the disqualification of the BJP's Ramdular Gond from the House the after being convicted in a rape case. Gond was sentenced to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment for raping a girl nine years ago.

He was disqualified as a member of the Uttar Pradesh assembly in December 2023.

According to the Representation of the People Act, a lawmaker sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more shall be disqualified "from the date of such conviction" and remain disqualified for another six years after serving time.