Gorakhpur and Phulpur redux! BJP faces yet another setback in UP, loses Noorpur Assembly seat, trails in Kairana Lok Sabha constituency

Months after losing Lok Sabha byelections in Gorakhpur, the bastion of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s seat Phulpur, the Bharatiya Janata Party is staring at yet another humiliating defeat in the state. While the ruling party is trailing in Kairana Lok Sabha constituency, it has already lost the Noorpur Assembly seat.

After completion of 14 rounds of counting of votes in Kairana, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) candidate Tabassum Hasan was leading by more than 40,000 votes against BJP candidate Mriganka Singh. In Noorpur, Samajwadi Party candidate Naim Ul Hasan defeated BJP’s Avani Singh by 6211 votes.

Since the BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 and Yogi Adityanath was appointed the Chief Minister of the state, the party has failed to perform in byelections in the state. A major factor behind this is most possibly a united opposition.

It was the alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which led to the defeat of BJP candidates in Gorakhpur and Phulpur bypolls. And the situation is similar today when the ruling saffron party is staring at defeat in two key seats – Kairana and Noorpur.

In Kairana, RLD candidate Tabassum Hasan has been backed by all other opposition parties, namely the Congress, the SP and the BSP. And backed by them, she is set to emerge as a winner, registering victory with a thumping majority.

Following the party’s defeat in from Gorakhpur and Phulpur by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP had profusely campaigned for Kairana seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Elections were necessitated in Kairana after the seat fell vacant in February following the death of BJP leader Hukum Singh. The BJP fielded Mriganka Singh, daughter of Singh, from the seat.

In Noorpur Assembly seat, the bypoll was necessitated after the death of sitting BJP MLA Lokendra Singh Chouhan. He was a two-time MLA from the seat.