Jaya Bachchan, jailed leader Azam Khan to add star power to Samajwadi Party's UP bypoll campaigns

The Samajwadi Party has released a list of 19 star campaigners for the upcoming bypolls for nine Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh. The list includes SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Rajya Sabha MP and actor Jaya Bachchan, jailed party leader and former 10-time MLA Mohammad Azam Khan among others.

Nine out of 10 vacant Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh are scheduled to go for the polls on November 13, except Milkipur in Ayodhya district.

Samajwadi Party's general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav submitted the list to the Election Commission of India, on Saturday, October 26. The SP has further solidified its lineup with candidates such as Akhilesh Yadav's wife MP Dimple Yadav, Leader of the Opposition in the U.P. Vidhan Sabha Mata Prasad Pandey; Faizabad MP Awadhesh Prasad and Naresh Uttam Patel, and others in the list.

The Samajwadi Party's list comes two days after the Congress announced on Thursday, that it would not field any candidates in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly bypolls. Instead, the grand old party said it would support the candidates of Samajwadi Party.

Congress party chief in Uttar Pradesh, Ajay Rai said that the ‘decision was taken considering the situation in the state.’ He was responding to a media query on Congress not contesting on two seats offered by the Samajwadi Party.

Consequently, with the Congress out, the political battleground is now set for a direct contest between Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

INDIA bloc to maintain momentum?

The bypolls are particularly important as they take place a few months after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where the INDIA bloc secured 43 out of 80 parliamentary seats. The Samajwadi Party (SP) won 37 seats, while the Congress claimed 6. In contrast, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) saw a significant drop, falling from 66 seats in 2019 to just 36 in 2024, with the BJP winning 33 of those seats. Thus, the bypolls seem to be a test to check if the INDIA bloc can maintain its winning streak.

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