Sitting MLA disqualified, Charkhari up for another bypoll

LUCKNOW: The Charkhari assembly constituency in Mahoba is headed towards yet another byelection with the Election Commission of India (ECI) disqualifying the sitting SP MLA Kaptan Singh following his conviction by a local court on murder charges in a 13-year-old case.
This will be the second time within a year when a byelection will be held in the constituency.
Kaptan Singh was elected from the constituency in September byelections after the seat was vacated by BJP leader Uma Bharti who was elected to Lok Sabha from Jhansi parliamentary seat. However, a lower court in Mahoba held Kaptan and his brother Laxman guilty of murder of a man called Kishan in 2002.
Confirming the development, joint chief electoral officer, ECI, Ramakant Rai said that the byelection in the assembly constituency will be held within four months.
Interestingly, a former Charkhari MLA, Uday Prakash of Bahujan Samaj Party, too, was recently convicted in a fraud case and sentenced to seven years in jail.
In the last byelection, the BSP did not contest, leading to a direct fight between the SP and BJP. The election turned into a prestige issue for BJP which was riding high on Modi wave and SP, which is ruling UP. Things turned out to be in favour of SP even as BJP lost seven seats.
The Charkhari assembly bypolls may thus lay the ground for another hot contest between the SP and BJP amid the possibility of BSP refraining from contesting again. Congress will however be in the fray too.
Charkhari, which has over 3 lakh electors, has not seen the same party winning consecutive terms in every election since 1989.