After Victory in Assembly Polls, BJP Eyes Majority in Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council

After a landslide victory in the state legislative assembly, the BJP would be eying to win the majority of 36 seats in the state Legislative Council where biennial elections will be held on April 9. The 36 seats of UP’s Upper House are spread across 35 local authorities’ constituencies, where polls were earlier planned on two different dates, but now it will be conducted together on April 9, sources in the election office said on Monday.

For the ruling BJP, which came back to power with a two-third majority in the just concluded assembly elections, it will be an opportunity to make itself the single-largest party in the House, and thereby enjoy a majority in both the Houses of UP Legislature. According to the official website, of the 100-member UP Legislative Council, currently the BJP has 35 MLCs, SP has 17 and the BSP has four MLCs.

The Congress, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and NISHAD party have one member each in the UP Legislative Council. The Teachers’ group has 2 MLCs, while the Independent group (‘Nirdal Samooh’) and Independents have 1 MLC each.

As many as 37 seats are vacant at present. Leader of the opposition in the Council Ahmad Hassan died after prolonged illness.

Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, a number of SP MLCs had also joined the BJP. They included Narendra Singh Bhati, Shatrudra Prakash, Rama Niranjan, Ravishankar Singh Pappu, CP Chandra, Ghanshyam Lodhi, Shailendra Pratap Singh and Ramesh Mishra.

BSP MLC Suresh Kashyap had also joined the BJP. The election process will recommence on March 15, and the notification for the second phase will also be issued, sources said.

Technically, the elections are still being held in two phases as originally announced, but polling will now be held on a single day. The schedule was tweaked following demands by political parties, the Election Commission (EC) had said in a statement on February 6.

On January 28, the EC had announced that the biennial legislative council elections will be held in two phases on March 3 and 7. The counting was to take place on March 12.

Now, polling for both the phases will now be held on April 9 and counting will take place on April 12. The term of the members ended on March 7.

The Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri local authorities’ constituency has two seats for which separate elections will be held. In the first phase, 29 constituencies and in the second phase, six constituencies were to go to polls.

Focusing on the legislative council elections, UP BJP’s general secretary JPS Rathore on Monday told PTI, “A meeting was held at the party office in this regard, and 3-5 names of probable candidates have been invited from each seat.”

He added that the voters in this election are village pradhans, members and chairmen of block development councils, members and chairmen of zila panchayat, corporators in urban areas. Apart from this, MLAs and MPs are also voters.

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. Samajwadi Party has won 111 seats, while its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal has won eight seats. SBSP, another ally of the SP, has won six seats.

Congress has won two seats, while the BSP has won one seat.

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