The campaign for the nine assembly byelections has intensified in Uttar Pradesh with just 24 hours left to end electioneering before the elections on Wednesday.

Polling in nine assembly seats will be held on November 20 from 7 AM to 6PM and counting of votes will be taken up on November 23.

Campaigning will end tomorrow at 6 PM.

This bypolls in UP has been termed as a semi-final before the 2027 assembly election and it has turned into a prestige matter for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath after the BJP’s not so good performance in the Lok Sabha polls in UP.

Similarly there is a lot of pressure on Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav in these bypolls to repeat his feat like the Lok Sabha polls.

However, this time Congress has not fielded any candidate and the grand old party is supporting the SP.

In all the nine seats, there is a direct contest between the BJP and the SP, but the Mayawati-led BSP is contesting in all the seats, and that could impact the results for both SP and the BJP as the BSP could dent the dalit votes in the state.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has single handedly led the campaign for the BJP and had already visited each assembly segment at least twice along with holding roadshows to woo the voters. THe CM has been assisted by his ministerial colleagues and the state BJP leaders.

On the other hand, SP President Akhilesh Yadav spearheaded the campaigning and visited the constituencies.

Out of nine seats, four were held by the Samajwadi Party, three by the BJP, one each by BJP ally Nishad Party and the SP’s former ally Rashtriya Lok Dal that switched sides to the NDA before the Lok Sabha polls.

Eight of these seats, except Sisamau, fell vacant after their MLAs were elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha polls. In Sisamau, the bypoll is being held due to the disqualification of SP MLA Irfan Solanki, who was convicted in a criminal case.

Karhal and Katehari seats are important seats in this bypolls which were held by the SP but this time BJP has put all its pressure to wrest them.

Among the by-election seats, Ghaziabad, Khair and Phulpur were held by the BJP while the Meerapur seat was won by RLD which was earlier with the SP. Now the RLD is also with the BJP.

Similarly, Majhwan seat was with the Nishad Party, but this time, the BJP has fielded a former MLA. The saffron party is also trying to seize the Kundarki seat in Moradabad and Sisamau in Kanpur from the SP.