Uttar Pradesh assembly bypolls: SP retains Karhal, Sisamau bastions, loses elsewhere

The Samajwadi Party retained its bastions Karhal (Mainpuri) and Sisamau (Kanpur) in the Uttar Pradesh assembly bypolls but lost Kundarki (Moradabad) and Katehari (Ambedkarnagar) which it had won in the 2022 state assembly elections.
The party was also defeated in five other seats — Meerapur, Majhawan, Ghaziabad, Khair and Phulpur. The Samajwadi Party alleged the results were managed and controlled by the BJP through the administration.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav termed the bypolls as the most distorted form of electoral politics.
In a post on X, he wrote, “The tricks of those who have made ‘election’ synonymous with ‘corruption’ have been captured in photographs and exposed before the world. The world, the country and Uttar Pradesh saw the most distorted form of electoral politics in this by-election. There may be a time of falsehood but not an era. Now the real struggle has begun… clench your fist, tighten your fist and make the PDA’s proclamation ‘Judenge to Jeetenge!”
Samajwadi Party candidate Naseem Solanki, wife of former SP MLA Irfan Solanki, won the Sisamau assembly seat in Kanpur, defeating her nearest rival Suresh Awasthi of the BJP by a margin of 8,564 votes.
Irfan Solanki had won the Sisamau assembly seat in 2022 but the seat fell vacant after he was sentenced and jailed in a criminal case.
Experts feel the sympathy vote for Naseem Solanki, who had wept on stage during electioneering, and Irfan Solanki getting bail towards the end of the campaign, helped the SP in retaining the seat.
In Karhal, the SP won the Yadav vs Yadav contest as Akhilesh Yadav’s nephew and SP candidate Tej Pratap Yadav defeated BJP nominee and his distant relative Anujesh Yadav by 14,725 votes.
The seat was won by SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in 2022 assembly polls, but had fallen vacant after he won the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Kannauj.
In Katehari, BJP candidate Dharmraj Nishad, a three-time former MLA defeated SP nominee Shobhawati Verma by 34,514 votes.
Shobhawati Verma is the wife of SP MP from Ambedkarnagar Lalji Verma, who had won the Katehari seat in 2022. The assembly seat fell vacant after Lalji Verma was elected to the Lok Sabha in June this year.
In a surprising result in the Muslim-dominated Kundarki seat, BJP candidate Ramveer Singh Thakur won by over 1.44 lakh votes. The SP had fielded former MLA Haji Mohd Rizwan.
Commenting on the results, senior journalist Ratan Mani Lal said, “The Karhal seat was considered an extended seat of the Yadav clan. In Lok Sabha earlier this year, some seats have gone to BJP but in assembly elections usually the influence of the Yadav clan is decisive. This time, Akhilesh Yadav also appealed to the people in Karhal and even took his late father’s name several times, which may have strengthened the Samajwadi Party further.”
“In Sisamau seat, there could be a sympathy wave in favour of Irfan Solanki,” Lal added.
Samajwadi Party leader Sudhir Panwar said the bypoll results were managed rather than fair results.
“In Lok Sabha elections, the system was under less influence of the BJP government. This time, the disproportionate political and police system were indicating towards a similar result that we are witnessing today.”
“When you are contesting elections by threatening minorities, still you are winning on minority dominated seats, this tells the story,” Panwar added.
SP MARGIN NARROWS IN KARHAL
Though the BJP lost the Karhal bypoll, the party has a reason to smile as the SP’s winning margin has come down to 14,725 from 67,504 in 2022. The EC figures suggest that in 2022 Akhilesh Yadav had won this seat by a margin of 67,504 votes defeating the BJP’s SP Singh Baghel. However, this time the SP candidate won bypoll by a margin of 14,725 votes only, which is less than one-fourth of the margin that Akhilesh Yadav had got in the 2022 assembly polls.