UP Ministers put in charge of 8 Assembly seats for bypolls

Lucknow: The BJP in Uttar Pradesh has put certain Ministers in charge of eight Assembly constituencies where by-elections are due, to ensure the party's victory. Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya has been made in-charge of the Ghatampur seat while another Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma will look after the Tundla seat.

The party has nominated Ministers Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary and Baldev Aulakh for the Amroha seat, Ashok Kataria, Suresh Rana and Kapil Dev Agarwal for the Bulandshahr seat, Surya Pratap Shahi and Satish Dwivedi for Deoria, and Mahendra Singh and Suresh Pasi for the Bangarmau seat. These six seats were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2017.

The BJP has also put Law Minister Brajesh Pathak in charge of the Suar seat in Rampur district. The seat was won by Samajwadi Party MP Mohammad Azam Khan's son Abdullah Azam but he was later disqualified due to discrepancies in his birth documents. The seat is said to be a stronghold of the Khan family and the BJP will face quite a challenge in wresting it.

The BJP has also made Minister Anil Rajbhar in-charge of the Malhani seat in Jaunpur district. Jaunpur is known to be a Samajwadi Party bastion. The seat fell vacant following the demise of SP MLA Parasnath Yadav earlier this year.

According to state BJP Vice-President Vijay Bahadur Pathak: "We are working towards winning all eight Assembly seats in the by-elections and will undertake a high-voltage campaign ahead of voting."

Meanwhile, the mood in the BJP camp is upbeat after the Bahujan Samaj Party announced its decision to contest the bypolls. Party strategists felt it would divide the opposition votes and hence work to the BJP's advantage.