Assembly by-elections in Uttar Pradesh are due to be held in 12 constituencies - Bhartana, Mughalsarai, Puwayan, Lucknow West, Jhansi, Rari, Kol Asla, Padrauna, Isauli, Haiser Bazar, Lalitpur and Etawah. Some constituencies, including Bhartana, Lucknow West, Jhansi and Padrauna, have fallen vacant as the sitting MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. Bhartana was represented by Samajwadi Party president, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lucknow West by senior Bharatiya, Janata Party leader, Lalji Tandon, Jhansi by Union Minister of State, Pradeep Jain and Padrauna by another Union Minister of State, RPN Singh.

The Congress has only two seats out of the 12 but the party has short-listed three to four names for each constituency, which were sent to the General Secretary of All India Congress Committee and in charge for UP affairs, Digvijay Singh in the beginning of September. Yet, despite the empanelment exercise, there has been no dearth of ticket seekers with the Lucknow West and Jhansi being the most sought after constituencies. Over 70 claimants had submitted their applications and the applications have not stopped coming to the party headquarters even after a couple of rounds of meetings in Delhi. A panel of four names from Lucknow West has been sent to the leadership, sources said. The Congress has not won from Lucknow West since 1985; the sitting Congress MP from Lakhimpur Kheri, Zafar Ali Naqvi, was the last party MLA from here.

A panel of four names has also been sent for Jhansi, but around 40 ticket seekers presented themselves at a recent meeting in Delhi. In the four Assembly by-elections held recently, the Congress drew a blank but its vote percentage went up substantially. In Moradabad West, the party polled about 27.18 per cent votes ( in 2007 UP polls it was 3.08 per cent ), it was around 13.80 per cent in Malihabad ( 1.14 per cent in 2007 ) and in Bidhuna the Congress secured 10.73 per cent votes, which was much higher than the 2.06 per cent vote in the 2007 Assembly polls. In Morna, the Congress got about 3.96 per cent of the popular vote, a marginal increase from 1.04 per cent in 2007.

Since Congress did well in Lok Sabha polls by bagging 21 seats, there is great enthusiasm among the people for party ticket and pressure on party organisation to do well .

Similarly, ruling Bahujan Samaj Party supremo and chief minister Mayawati is also taking interest in these by-elections. It may be mentioned that the party recently won three out of the four assembly by-elections. BSP leadership has assigned the task of mobilising people's support to key leaders and ministers.

BSP also took the lead in declaring the names of candidates very early allowing them to campaign in their areas. Now Mayawati is also focussed on the list of candidates of other political parties and changing her candidates as and when required.

The elections are also crucial for Mulayam, as his daughter-in-law, Dimple, is contesting from Firozabad.

Mulayam will have to counter the pressures from his two former lieutenants. Raj Babbar is contesting on Congress ticket and SP Singh Baghel on a BSP ticket. The Samajwadi Party leader will have to ensure that his candidate gets elected from Bhartana which had been sending Mulayam Singh Yadav to UP Assembly. (IPA)