LUCKNOW: As political stakeholders, including the ruling BJP-led NDA, Samajwadi Party (SP), and Congress, gear up for the crucial by-polls following the Lok Sabha election results in Uttar Pradesh, the main opposition party SP is expected to rely on ‘Parivarvad’ (family lineage) and its winning PDA political formula—Pichde (backward classes or OBCs), Dalits, and Alpasankhyak (minorities)—to maintain its stronghold in the upcoming elections.Of the 10 assembly seats up for grabs in the by-polls, five—Karhal (Mainpuri), Kundarki (Moradabad), Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), Milkipur (Ayodhya), and Sisamau (Kanpur)—are currently held by the SP. Four of these seats were vacated by SP MLAs who were elected in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, while the Sisamau assembly seat in Kanpur was vacated after its sitting MLA, Irfan Solanki, lost his membership due to a conviction in a criminal case.To retain these five seats, the Akhilesh Yadav-led party is considering fielding family members of the MLAs who vacated them. In Milkipur, Ayodhya, the party may field Ajit Prasad, the son of newly-elected Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad. Notably, Awadhesh emerged as a giant killer by snatching the Faizabad seat—the home of Ayodhya—from the BJP, defeating the sitting two-time BJP MP Lallu Singh.In Karhal, vacated by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, the party is likely to field former Mainpuri MP Tej Pratap Yadav, the nephew of Akhilesh Yadav. Tej Pratap was initially tipped to run for the Kannauj Lok Sabha seat but was later replaced by Akhilesh Yadav. The BJP has never won this seat, which has been an SP stronghold since 1993.Similarly, in Katehari (Ambedkar Nagar), the SP is likely to field Chhaya Verma, daughter of Ambedkar Nagar MP Lalji Verma, to continue her father’s legacy. Lalji, who had represented Katehari in the UP assembly, resigned to retain the Ambedkar Nagar Lok Sabha seat. Chhaya contested the UP assembly by-polls in Jalalpur (Ambedkar Nagar) as a BSP candidate in 2019 but was defeated. At that time, Lalji was a BSP MLA from Katehari. The BJP won Katehari only once, in 1991. Lalji Verma won it in 2017 as a BSP candidate and again in 2022 as an SP candidate.The Kundarki (Moradabad) seat may see a candidate from the family of Shafiqur Rehman Barq, who passed away after being announced as the SP LS candidate from Sambhal. After his death, his grandson and sitting SP MLA from Kundarki, Zia-ur-Rehman Barq, was fielded from Sambhal and won, vacating the Kundarki Assembly seat. The BJP won Kundarki only once, in 1993, and the seat has been with the SP since 2012.In Sisamau (Kanpur), the SP is considering fielding Naseem Solanki, the wife of convicted SP MLA Irfan Solanki, who has been sentenced to a seven-year jail term in a criminal case.
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