Legislative council election on Jan 28
THE MLCS WHO ARE RETIRING INCLUDE DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER DINESH SHARMA, BJP STATE UNIT PRESIDENT SWATANTRA DEV SINGH, SENIOR BJP LEADER LAXMAN PRASAD ACHARYA
LUCKNOW: The biennial election to the 12 legislative council seats falling vacant on January 30 will be held on January 28.
The Election Commission on Wednesday announced the schedule for the election. Chief electoral officer, Uttar Pradesh, Ajay Kumar Shukla said the notification for the biennial election would be issued on January 11. The last date for filing of nominations was January 18 and scrutiny of the nomination papers would be done on January 19. The last date for withdrawal of candidature was January 21, he said, adding that polling would be held on January 28 from 9 am to 4 pm and counting of votes would commence at 5 pm on January 28.
The MLCs who are retiring include deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma, BJP state unit president Swatantra Dev Singh, senior BJP leader Laxman Prasad Acharya, Congress leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui (who has already been disqualified), BSP leaders Dharam Veer Singh Ashok and Pradeep Kumar Jatav, Samajwadi Party leaders Ahmad Hasan, Ashu Malik, Ramesh Yadav, Ram Jatan Rajbhar, Sahab Singh Saini and Virendra Singh.
On the basis of its strength in the legislative assembly, the BJP is in a position to win 10 seats. A meeting of the BJP state election committee was held in the party office on Monday. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath was also present in the meeting.
The BJP state committee authorized the party’s state unit president to send the list of the candidates to the central election committee for approval. According to sources, along with Dinesh Sharma, Swatantra Dev Singh and Laxman Acharya, other probable candidates include Govind Narayan Shukla, JPS Rathore, Priyanka Rawat, Anup Gupta, Ashwini Tyagi, Rajnikant Maheswari, Manvendra Singh, Mahesh Srivastava and Anjana Mahaur.
In the 100-member legislative council, the SP has 55 members, BJP 32, BSP 8 and Congress 2. The strength of the BJP is likely to increase in the council after the biennial election.