Kairana outcome crucial to BJP, oppn

The outcome tomorrow of the Kairana bye-election will show if the ruling BJP manages to break its losing streak this year in Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha bypolls or hands over a hat-trick to the opposition.

The counting of votes for the Noorpur assembly constituency in UP will also be taken up tomorrow.

Altogether, results of bye-elections for four parliamentary and nine assembly seats across states will be declared. Polling took place on Monday.

The Kairana seat fell vacant after the death of BJP MP Hukum Singh, whose daughter Mriganka Singh is now the party candidate.

She is fighting Rashtriya Lok Dal's Tabassum Hasan, who is also supported by the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Just ahead of the polls, Lok Dal candidate Kanwar Hasan retired from the contest and joined RLD, further boosting her chances.

The opposition hopes that by consolidating the anti-BJP vote it will repeat its success in Gorakhpur and Phulpur bye-elections earlier this year when the ruling party suffered humiliating defeats.

Bye-elections were held for Gorakhpur and Phulpur in March as the seats fell vacant when UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Keshav Prasad Maurya resigned after entering the UP legislative council.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has campaigned hard for Kairana.

It hopes to send a strong message to voters, party workers as well as the opposition parties that the drubbing it got in Gorakhpur and Phulpur bye-elections was an aberration and that it is very much a force to reckon with in western UP.

The Kairana election is the fourth Lok Sabha bye-election in the state since 2014.

Apart from Gorakhpur and Phulpur, a bye-election was also held in Mainpuri in 2014.

Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had resigned from Mainpuri after deciding to represent Azamgarh, the second constituency from which he won in 2014.

SP's Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, who is related to him, defeated the BJP there in that bye-election, retaining the seat for his party.