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Amit Shah faces a litmus test in the Uttar Pradesh bypolls scheduled on September 13.
The election schedule was announced Saturday, a day when the newly-elected Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) president also announced his new team of BJP office bearers to lead the party in state assembly elections in four states – Haryana, Maharashtra, Jammu & Kashmir, and Jharkhand. The first three are currently ruled by a Congress or a Congress-alliance government. However, the National Conference and Congress will contest the J&K elections on their own after parting ways earlier this year.
Since Shah led the BJP's campaign in UP during the recent Lok Sabha poll, leading led the party to a sweeping victory with 71 of 80 seats, all eyes are on him to see if he can recreate his earlier magic in the country's most populated state. A win in the state -- known for it political divisiveness and fickleness -- will clearly establish him as the party's star organiser.
According to the election schedule, the candidates can file and withdraw nominations by August 27 and 30 respectively. The counting of votes and declaration of results will take place on September 16.
The UP bypolls assume significance in the backdrop of electoral reverses faced by BJP in the recent Uttarakhand bypolls, where the Congress recovered from the Lok Sabha defeat to win all three seats.
Meanwhile, Shah's new team has strong representation from UP with as many as 10 members included from the state, which has elected both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union home minister Rajnath Singh from Varanasi and Lucknow respectively.
The UP bypoll will be held to fill 11 Assembly seats and a solitary Lok Sabha one in Mainpuri, which fell vacant when Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav vacated it after also winning from Azamgarh.
The assembly seats fell vacant when those legislators were elected to Parliament. These include Saharanpur City, Bijnor, Thakurdwara (Moradabad), Noida, Nighasan (Lakhimpur Khedi), Lucknow East, Hamirpur, Charkhari (Mahoba), Sirathu, Balha (Bahraich) and Rohania.
Although, 12 assembly seats are vacant at present in UP, the Election Commission (EC) has yet not announced the date for bypoll on Kairana (Shamli), since a court case is pending over the 2012 assembly poll.
Meanwhile, the model code of conduct has come into force in the respective districts following the announcement of bypolls.
