The Lok Sabha elections are over but the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh is heading for another rounds of polls in the next few months as several assembly seats have fallen vacant With seven members of the UP Legislative Assembly making it to Parliament in the Lok Sabha polls, the state will witness election for as many as 11 seats.
In the recent elections, political parties fielded 30 MLAs from different constituencies. While SP fielded maximum 17 MLAs, its arch rival BSP named seven of its members as the party candidate. BJP fielded four and Congress two MLAs.
Of 17 MLAs fielded by the SP, three including the party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav had been elected to the Lok Sabha. Mulayam, who was till now MLA from Bharthana assembly seat of Etawah district, has been elected as MP from Mainpuri.
Similarly another party MLA Ram Kishun, who was MLA from Mugalsarai, has won from Chandauli parliamentary constituency. Mithilesh Kumar, who was an MLA from Puwayan, was elected from Shahjahanpur seat.
Of seven MLAs fielded by BJP, only one managed to win the parliamentary election. Party leader and MLA from Lucknow (west) assembly seat Lalji Tandon, has won the prestigious Lucknow seat, which was represented by Atal Bihari Vajpayee for five times in a row.
The Congress fielded only two MLAs and both of them have been elected to the Lok Sabha. While MLA from Padrauna R P N Singh had emerged victorious from Kushi Nagar seat, his colleague in the Assembly Pradeep Jain Aditya has won from Jhansi.
Interestingly, SP MLA Brahma Shanker Tripathi too was in the fray from Kushi Nagar. Dhananjay Singh, JD(U) MLA from Rari merged his party with the ruling BSP just before the Lok Sabha polls.
Singh, who was fielded by the BSP from Jaunpur, too had been elected to Parliament.BJP MLA Seema Dwiwedi was also contesting from this seat. Besides, there were two MLAs who resigned from the Assembly just before the general elections.
Former SP MLA Gauri Shanker resigned from the assembly only to contest election from Etawah seat on a BSP ticket.
Similarly, former SP leader and once a close confidant of party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Dhaniram Verma, who was MLA from Vidhuna, resigned from the assembly after he joined the BSP.
His son Mahendra Verma contested election against Mulayam's son Akhilesh Yadav from Kannauj, but lost. RLD's MLA from Morna Qadir Rana, too resigned from the state assembly and contested election on BSP ticket from Muzaffarnagar.
Rana won the seat after defeating her former party colleague and sitting MP Anuradha Chaudhary.
BJP MLA from Moradabad (west) Rajiv Channa too resigned from the assembly to contest Lok Sabha elections from Moradabad but he lost.
According to the election department officials, now by-elections would be held for 11 seats in the state including Morna, Puwayan, Malihabad, Bharthana, Mugalsarai, Lucknow (west), Jhansi, Padrauna, Rari, Moradabad (west) and Vidhuna. Besides, BJP MLA from Kolasala Ajay Rai could also land in trouble.
Rai, contested Lok Sabha election from Varanasi against senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi on a SP ticket.
The party had moved an application before the Vidhan Sabha speaker to disqualify Rai under the Anti-Defection Law.
In addition to this, elections can also be held for one Lok Sabha seat, as Mulayam's son Akhilesh Yadav contested from two places Kannauj and Firozabad and won from both the places.
Yadav, would be required to vacate one of the two seats. In that case by-election will be held for the seat he vacates, election department officials said.
