With BSP backing powerful independents now, it is going to be four cornered contest with BJP, SP, Congress and independents.

When BSP supremo Mayawati realized that her earlier decision not to contest by-elections would help BJP she changed her plans.

Mayawati is aware of the fact that her core voters have shifted to BJP in the name of making Narendra Modi PM and it would be difficult for her to get her voters back to BSP.

During her recent press conference, Mayawati had admitted that her dalit voters had shifted to BJP during Lok Sabha elections.

She warned dalits that they would lose their identity in BJP and asked them to be beware of grand design of saffron brigade.

During her two-day national executive meet held in Lucknow, Mayawati warned her dalit voters once again not to get swayed by the propaganda machinery of BJP and she warned that they should not be incited to fight against Muslims. Mayawati went to the extent of asking her voters to waste their votes rather than voting for BJP.

Mayawati knows that during recent Lok Sabha polls, dalit voters had voted for BJP which resulted in total rout as BSP could not open its account in Lok Sabha.

BSP has now decided to support powerful independents so that its supporters should not give votes to BJP or SP.

The identification of powerful dalit in each constituency would be done by BSP state president Ram Achal Rajbhar and national general secretaries Swami Prasad Maurya and Nassimuddin Siddiqui.

So much so, BSP is planning to play spoilsport for Samajwadi Party in Mainpuri-by polls by ensuring defeat of grand nephew of Mulayam Singh Yadav.and BJP candidate Prem Singh Shakya. BSP has asked its shakya leader to ensure that shakya voters who constitute more than 10 per cent of total electorate, should support independent candidate.

BJP has more stakes in these elections and the state party under the leadership and guidance of national president Amit Shah is more aggressive to retain all these seats held by the Party in last assembly polls. All the 12 assembly seats belong to BJP and one to alliance partner Apna Dal.

In order to polarize votes on the slogan of Hindutva, BJP has made Yogi Adityanath MP from Gorakhpur as star campaigner for by-polls. The other members of the team are state president Luxmikant Vajpai and Union Minister Kalraj Mishra.

BJP will take the advantage of communal tension prevailing in the states with more than 600 incidents of communal violence in the state since Modi government was installed at the centre. And 60 per cent of these incidents took place in and around 12 constituencies going to polls.

All the senior BJP leaders have been made in charge of the constituencies going to polls and star campaigner Hema Malini and others have been deputed to Mainpuri to ensure victory for party candidate and cause set back to SP.

During his recent visit to Lucknow, Amit Shah had asked party leaders and workers that winning all the assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat, was very important for party to able to form government in the state in 2017 assembly polls.

Political analysts feel that BJP has advantage as BSP and RLD are not contesting these polls and their absence would help saffron brigade which is working day and night to wean away voters of these two parties.

Samajwadi Party, which got rude shock in Lok Sabha polls as the party could get only five seats and only those where family members won, is very serious to win maximum number of seats in these polls to give the message that Modi wave was on the wane.

By winning good number of seats, Samajwadi Party wants to silence its critics who question the ability of young chief minister Akhilesh Yadav for poor governance and deteriorating law and order situation.

Mulayam Singh Yadav has held several meetings with ministers and senior leaders and warned them that action would be taken against them if party candidates fail to win seats in their areas.

SP national president Mulayam Singh Yadav has been telling party leaders that they should spread the message of good decisions taken by Akhilesh Yadav government to masses.

SP national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav has complained to Election Commission to ban BJP star campaigner Yogi Adityanath from campaigning as he had been arousing communal passion through his hate speeches in the state.

Although Congress Party is contesting these polls but it has yet not recovered from the shock due to poor performance in Lok Sabha polls where only Sonia and Rahul could win.

Congress has the support from RLD of Ajit Singh but it would be difficult to make its presence felt in these elections as majority of voters had shifted to BJP.

These by-elections are going to be very important for the major political parties as it would set the mood for the future. Not only Akhilesh Yadav government but all the major political parties in Uttar Pradesh will decide their strategy for the future politics after assessing the outcome of the results. (IPA Service)