Uttar Pradesh prepares for by-elections in nine assembly seats on Wednesday, pitting the BJP against the SP in what is expected to be the first election contest after the Lok Sabha elections.

The Bahujan Samaj Party is running alone for all nine seats, while the Congress is not running in the by-elections and is siding with its INDIA alliance partner, the Samajwadi Party.

The Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) of Chandrashekhar has put up candidates for every seat save Sisamau, while the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has also put up candidates from Ghaziabad, Kundarki, and Meerapur. There are 90 people running in the by-elections; the Ghaziabad assembly seat may have a maximum of 14 candidates, while the Khair (SC) and Sisamau assembly constituencies can have a minimum of five candidates each.

Various political parties will get a message from the by-election results, even if they won’t directly affect the 403-member UP Legislative Assembly. The BJP and its allies RLD will attempt to further solidify their representation in the Assembly, while the SP hopes to expand its number in the House. Currently, the SP has 105 MLAs in the Assembly, whereas the BJP has 251 MLAs. The Apna Dal (Sonelal), a BJP ally, has thirteen MLAs; the RLD has eight; the SBSP has six; and the NISHAD party has five.

The BSP only has one MLA, whilst the Congress and Jansatta Dal Loktantrik both have two. Following the Lok Sabha elections, this will be the first electoral test for both the NDA and the INDIA alliance in the politically significant state. Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party, asked people to support his party on Tuesday before the election.

“I would like to ask all my voters, especially the young farmers, to help,” he said in a post on the SP’s X. All the government can do is sabotage the elections. I trust the government would endeavor to defend the rights granted by Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar in order to preserve the Constitution. Manish Shukla, a spokesman for the Uttar Pradesh BJP, made fun of the Samajwadi Party on Tuesday by stating, “The Samajwadi Party is scared of losing the by-elections.” By pointing the finger at the Election Commission for the loss, Akhilesh Yadav is attempting to avoid accountability.