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Four-cornered contest in U.P. byelections

LUCKNOW, SEPT. 26. A four-cornered contest is on the cards for the crucial byelections to one Lok Sabha and 12 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, scheduled for October 13. The nomination process for the bypolls ended on Saturday.

On September 17, the Election Commission had scrapped the byelection to the Akbarpur (reserved) Lok Sabha seat on technical grounds. The byelection to the seat, earlier scheduled for October 13, would be held after the festival season in November-December.

Allegation of misuse of government machinery by the ruling party and the Opposition's demand to hold the byelections under the purview of central observers and central para-military forces besides other complaints have already been lodged with the Election Commission.

While on one hand, Opposition leaders met Election Commissioner N Gopalswami during his visit to Lucknow and lodged complaints, on the other, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav met the Chief Election Commissioner the same day to clarify his party's position.

According to analysts, while the ruling Samajwadi Party was leaving no stone unturned to retain and capture most of the seats, the BJP, BSP and ruling coalition ally Congress are making all-out efforts to capture as many seats as possible.

Mr Yadav has campaigned in several constituencies as part of the first round and indicated that the Samajwadi Party would give a tough fight to its opponents. BSP supremo Mayawati has also started campaigning while senior BJP and Congress leaders are yet to commence their electioneering.

Altogether 174 candidates are in the fray, including 13 for the Mainpuri Lok Ssbha seat.

While the ruling SP had taken a lead by announcing the candidates for all the seats after registering a landslide victory in the LS polls, the Congress, BJP and the BSP had to struggle in selecting their nominees.

The SP state president, Ram Sharan Das, claimed that the party candidates would wrest most of the seats, including the Lok Sabha seat. On the other hand, Congress state president Jagdambika Pal expressed confidence that his party nominees would come up with ``surprising results.''

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