Lucknow: Politically very important Uttar Pradesh is once again going to witness the second round of direct contest between Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party (SP). On April 9, there will be a fierce battle between these two parties in the election of 36 seats in the local administrative area of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.
Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party have not fielded candidates in the Legislative Council elections, due to which this fight has once again become between BJP and SP. In the recently concluded state assembly elections also, the main contest was between these two parties. SP will once again try to maintain its majority in the House in this Legislative Council election, while BJP will try to get majority in the Legislative Council after the assembly. The counting of votes for the elections will be held on April 12.
The BJP on Monday announced the names of six more candidates for the upcoming elections to be held on April 9. Earlier, the party had announced the names of 30 candidates. Of the 36 candidates the party has fielded, five have left the Samajwadi Party and joined the BJP. They are Shailendra Pratap Singh, CP Chand, Ravi Shankar Singh, Rama Niranjan and Narendra Bhati. Ravi Shankar is the grandson of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar.
The SP on Sunday announced the names of its 34 candidates. The party has left the seats of Meerut-Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr in the local administrative region for its alliance partner Rashtriya Lok Dal. Prominent SP candidates include Dr Kafeel Khan from Deoria region, Mashkoor Ahmed from Rampur Bareilly region, Sunil Singh from Lucknow-Unnao region, Rajesh Yadav from Barabanki and Udayveer Singh from Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri.
BSP sources also said that the party will not field any of its candidates in the Legislative Council elections. BJP’s ally Apna Dal Sonelal has also decided not to field any candidate in the Legislative Council elections, the party’s acting president and Legislative Council member Ashish Patel has confirmed this.
According to information received from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer of the state, 139 candidates have filed nominations for the first phase. The last date for filing nominations was March 21. A total of nine candidates have filed nominations for the second phase, the last date for filing nominations in this phase is March 22.
In the Legislative Council elections of the local administrative area, the village head, the members of the village panchayat, the chairman and members of the block development councils, the district panchayat president and the councilors of the urban bodies are the voters. Apart from this, MLAs and MPs also vote in this election. Meanwhile, Congress Legislative Council member Deepak Singh told PTI-Bhasha, “Congress has decided not to field candidates for the upcoming Legislative Council elections.
Now we will fight elections only to win. We are reviewing the party’s performance in the recently held state assembly elections.” At present, BJP has 35 members in the state’s 100-member Legislative Council, while SP has 17, BSP four and Congress, Apna Dal Nishad Party and Nirdal Group have one member each. The teacher team has two members while one is an independent member. 36 seats of the State Legislative Council had become vacant on March 7 last due to the expiry of the term of the concerned members. The 37th seat in the House fell vacant due to the death of Leader of Opposition Ahmed Hassan.
The BJP got 255 seats in the recent state assembly elections and is going to form the government for the second time in a row with a clear majority. Its ally Apna Dal Sonelal won 12 seats and Nishad Party won six seats. On the other hand, SP got 111 seats and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal got eight and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party got six seats. Apart from this, the Congress had won two seats and the BSP one seat.