8 seats vacant, UP may see mini assembly poll

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh may witness a mini-assembly election of sorts in the coming months if the Election Commission decides to hold by-polls to eight vacant seats in the state assembly along with the Bihar polls.

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

“The Election Commission of India has to take a call about holding by-polls to the eight assembly seats. As of now, we have no information about the possible timing of the by-polls,” said a senior officer. A by-poll to a vacant seat in the state assembly is generally held within six months from the date of vacancy. However, EC has not yet given any indication about holding these by-polls.

“The poll panel can defer the elections in special circumstances like Covid-19 or any other reasons. These vacancies have no impact on the state assembly,” said former advisor to governor and a legal expert CB Pandey. UP assembly has a sanctioned strength of 403 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 Sadat constituency.

BJP’s Janmejaya Singh (Deoria Sadar) died on August 21 and Veerendra Singh Sirohi (Bulandshahr) passed away on March 2. SP’s Paras Nath Yadav, who represented Malhani in Jaunpur, died on June 12.

The other seats declared vacant include the one held by BJP member Kuldeep Singh Sengar (Bangarmau) who was disqualified following the life sentence in a rape case. The Swar seat was declared vacant after high court declared the election of SP’s Mohammad Abdullah Azam invalid. Earlier, the Tundla assembly seat of Firozabad was declared vacant after SP Singh Baghel got elected to the Lok Sabha from Agra. The EC also will have to take a call about holding the biennial election to 11 seats of the UP Vidhan Parishad.