BJP fields late MP Hukum Singh's daughter for Kairana bypolls

The BJP on Tuesday fielded Mriganka Singh for the May 28 bypolls to the Kairana Lok Sabha seat.

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New Delhi/Lucknow: The BJP on Tuesday fielded Mriganka Singh, the daughter of former MP Hukum Singh, for the May 28 bypoll to the Kairana Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh.

The bypoll in Kairana, necessitated by the death of sitting MP Hukum Singh, gains significance as the ruling BJP had lost two prestigious Lok Sabha bypolls in March after the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) joined hands against it.

The BJP lost Gorakhpur, earlier represented by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Phulpur, earlier represented by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya. 

The success of Samajwadi Party candidates in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur had come as a boost to efforts by opposition parties to forge a common understanding against the BJP in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha polls. 

Mriganka Singh contested unsuccessfully the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls in 2017 from Kairana where she was defeated by Nahid Hasan, son of former MP, the late Munawar Hasan, by over 21,000 votes.

Former MP Tabassum Hasan is the joint candidate of the opposition in the Kairana parliamentary seat. She will be contesting on the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) ticket. 

The Samajwadi Party and Ajit Singh's RLD have thrashed out a formula to combine the traditional arch-rivals -- Jats and Muslims -- to oust the BJP.

The BSP and the Congress are not contesting the polls and are likely to extend their support to the opposition candidates.

Hukum Singh, who died in February 2018 at a hospital in Noida, after suffering severe breathing difficulties, represented Kairana in the state assembly seven times before he moved to the Lok Sabha in 2014.

Besides Kairana, the BJP Central Election Committee also fielded candidates for the assembly bypolls to Noorpur (Uttar Pradesh), Gomia (Jharkhand), Tharali (Uttarakhand) and Maheshtala (West Bengal).

In Noorpur, the BJP has fielded Avani Singh, the wife of deceased sitting MLA Lokendra Singh, whose death necessitated the bypoll. The SP has fielded Naimul Hasan as its candidate.

The BJP has fielded Madhav Lal Singh from Gomia Assembly constituency in Jharkhand. The seat fell vacant after sitting JMM legislator Yogendra Prasad got convicted by the court and sentenced for more than two years for involving in criminal cases.

For bypoll to Tharali Assembly seat in Uttarakhand, the BJP fielded Munni Devi, widow of late sitting MLA Magan Lal Shah, as its candidate. 

For bypoll to Maheshtala Assembly seat in West Bengal, the BJP has fielded retired IPS Sujit Ghosh. The seat fell vacant following the death of sitting Trinamool Congress lawmaker Kasturi Das. The ruling Trinamool has fielded her husband Dulal Das.

Counting on all the seats will take place on May 31.