In Uttar Pradesh, notification for the by-polls to nine assembly seats will be issued today. Nominations can be filed till 25th of this month. By-elections are being held in state on 9 assembly seats except Milkipur, on which, a petition is pending before Allahabad High Court.

 The assembly seats where bye-elections will be held are Katehari, Karhal, Meerapur, Kundarki, Phulpur, Sisamau, Ghaziabad, Majhawan and Khair.

Out of these nine seats, four were held by the Samajwadi Party, three by the Bharatiya Janata Party, one each by BJP ally Nishad Party and the SP’s former ally Rashtriya Lok Dal that switched sides to the National

Democratic Alliance before the Lok Sabha polls. Eight out of these 9 seats, except Sisamau, fell vacant after its 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.

The Samahwadi Party has already announced candidates on seven seats including party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s cousin Tej Pratap Singh Yadav as its candidate from Karhal. BJP has not announced the names but decided to field its candidates on 8 out of these 9 seats except Meerapur where its ally RLD will field the candidate.