New Delhi: After a resounding victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the BJP has set its eyes on becoming the single largest party in the state Legislative Council by securing a majority of the 36 seats in the Upper House to be held on Saturday.
These seats are spread over 35 local officials’ constituencies. The biennial polling was earlier scheduled on two dates but now it will be held simultaneously on April 9. Counting of votes will take place on April 12.
This is an opportunity for the saffron party to enjoy a majority in both the houses of the Uttar Pradesh Legislature.
Sixty-five candidates are in the fray. The Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh said that polling will be held from 8 am to 4 pm at 739 polling stations in which 1,20,657 voters will exercise their franchise.
Voters in this biennial election are village headmen, members and presidents of block development councils, members and presidents of district panchayats, and corporators in urban areas. MLAs and MPs are also voters in this poll.
Official sources said that Adityanath, the MLA from Gorakhpur Urban, will cast his vote on Saturday at the Municipal Corporation’s polling booth in Gorakhpur.
Nine MLCs from eight local authorities’ constituencies have been elected unopposed. These seats are Budaun, Hardoi, Kheri, Mirzapur-Sonbhadra, Banda-Hamirpur, Aligarh, Bulandshahr and Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri.
Two MLCs were elected unopposed from the Mathura-Eta-Mainpuri Local Authority constituency, while one MLC each from the rest of the constituencies was elected unopposed.
BJP has 34 MLCs, Samajwadi Party 17 and Bahujan Samaj Party four MLCs in the 100-member Legislative Council. Congress, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party have one member each.
The Teachers’ Group has two MLCs, while the Independent Group (‘Independent Group’) and Independents have one MLC each.
At present 37 seats are vacant.
Addressing BJP workers a week ago, Chief Minister Adityanath said it was important for the party to win 36 seats so that his government’s development agenda could be carried forward without any hindrance.
“Out of these 36 seats, the BJP has won nine unopposed. If the party wins all the 36 seats, you can assume that it will have a two-thirds majority in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and will have no problem in pursuing development plans. Is. Quickly.”
The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party have not fielded any candidates in the Legislative Council elections, making it a direct contest between the BJP and the main opposition Samajwadi Party in the state assembly.
Some independent candidates are also in the fray.
Of the 36 BJP candidates, five are former Samajwadi Party leaders who joined the saffron camp on the eve of the February-March state elections.
They are Shailendra Pratap Singh from Sultanpur local authority constituency, CP Chand from the Gorakhpur-Maharajganj local authorities, Ravishankar Singh ‘Pappu’, the grandson of former prime minister Chandrasekhar, from Ballia local authorities, Rama Niranjan from Jhansi-Jalaun-Lalitpur local authorities and Narendra Bhati from Bulandshahr local authorities.
Samajwadi Party has announced its candidates for 34 seats excluding Meerut-Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr constituencies for its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal.
Dr Kafeel Khan from Deoria, Mashkoor Ahmed from Rampur-Bareilly, MLC Sunil Kumar Sajan, Rajesh Kumar and Udayveer Singh have been fielded from Lucknow-Unnao, Barabanki and Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri seats respectively.
Adityanath has recently left the Legislative Council seat after being elected MLA from Gorakhpur Urban seat.
The Samajwadi Party has nominated Sanjay Lather to the post after the death of Leader of the Opposition in the Council Ahmed Hassan on February 19 after a prolonged illness.
In the recently concluded assembly elections, the BJP has won 255 seats, while its allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party have won 12 and six seats respectively.
The Samajwadi Party has won 111 seats while its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal has won eight seats. SBSP, another ally of the Samajwadi Party, won six seats. Congress has won two seats, while BSP has won one seat.