LUCKNOW: The Election Commission of India (ECI), on Tuesday, announced the schedule for nine of the 10 Assembly seats set for the bypolls in Uttar Pradesh. The by-elections for nine assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will take place on November 1, and the results will be declared on November 23, along with the results of the Maharashtra and Jharkhand Assembly elections. However, the ECI did not notify the by-election in the Milkipur Assembly segment of Ayodhya which had fallen vacant by the election of sitting SP MLA Awadhesh Prasad to Lok Sabha in recent general elections. Awadhesh Prasad had wrested Faizabad parliamentary seat from BJP’s two-term sitting MP Lallu Singh. As per the ECI, the by-poll in Milkipur would not be held along with the other nine seats as there was an election petition challenging the election of Awadhesh Prasad in 2022 was pending in Allahabad High Court. The petition to challenge the election of Awadhesh Prasad, who has represented SP in the UP Assembly nine times, was filed by the BJP candidate Gorakhnath Baba in 2022. As per sources, Gorakhnath Baba had challenged the affidavit submitted by Awdhesh Prasad at the time of filing his nomination from the Milkipur assembly seat as SP candidate. The petitioner contended that the license of the lawyer, who had attested and verified the affidavit of the SP candidate, was cancelled many years ago and that it was not even renewed. Consequently, as per the petitioner’s claim, the affidavit of Awdhesh Prasad was fake and illegal and so his election should be cancelled.
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