News Analysis India

Tag: UP council polls

  • BJP making all-out efforts to sweep upcoming Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council polls

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: Taking it as an issue of prestige to have a majority in both houses of the state legislature, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after creating history by returning to power in UP for a second consecutive term, is making an all-out effort to sweep the upcoming council polls scheduled for April 9. The results will be declared on April 12.

    In fact, 36 council seats were up for election but the ruling party has already won nine of them unanimously. Voting for the remaining 27 seats will take place on Saturday.

    At present, in the UP Legislative Council of 100 members, the BJP has 35 members, the main opposition Samajwadi Party has 17, BSP 4, Congress one and the BJP allies Apna Dal (S) and Nishad Party have one member each. Moreover, two members belong to the teachers’ group (non-political) and two are Independent. Thus in the upper house of state legislature, 37 positions are vacant, but the election will be held for 36 seats, where elected representatives of local bodies will cast their votes. The remaining one seat is lying vacant due to the demise of SP MLC and leader of opposition Ahmad Hassan after a prolonged illness during the Assembly polls.

    The BJP, which is said to be always in poll mode, is leaving no stone unturned to win all the seats of the Council. In order to shore up the prospects of the party, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been convening virtual meetings with the party’s elected representatives. Last week, he had convened a meeting in the presence of his deputies and Cabinet Ministers for the Urban Development and Panchayati Raj departments.

    As per highly-placed party sources, the newly-appointed ministers, MLAs and party MPs have been asked to reach out to the voters to ensure an impressive victory for the party in the council polls as well. Even the party’s organisational secretary, Sunil Bansal and his team are keeping a close eye on the day-to-day preparations for the council polls.

    In the meeting which was convened by CM Yogi, around 32,000 people were virtually connected. The CM appealed to MLAs, Zila Panchayat members, Block Development Council members, mayors, Nagar Palika chairpersons, village pradhans, corporators and even the MPs to work for the victory of the party’s council poll candidates.

    To attain a majority in the council, any party needs to have at least 51 candidates. The ruling BJP is short of a majority by seven members which it is sure to get in the upcoming elections.

    Though the ruling party may not find it difficult to gain a majority in the upper house, a clean sweep will consolidate its political position further in the state legislature after a convincing win in the Assembly polls. A BJP leader explained by saying that in 2017, when the BJP had formed the government in the state, the SP had over 60 seats in the council. “If the BJP gets a majority in both Houses of the state, it will be easier for it to get important bills and proposals passed and cement its position as a more formidable political force psychologically also in the state.”

    According to party sources, the BJP leadership has directed its district units to contact voters as there is not enough time and the candidate may not be able to contact each and everyone personally.

    BJP is keeping its hopes of winning a majority in the council alive because 67 of the 75 Zila Panchayat chairmen, over 600 of the total 825 block heads, and 14 of the 17 mayors are supported by the party.

    In the present composition of the UP council, 10 members are nominated by the state Governor, 38 by the UP MLAs, 36 by elected local bodies, eight by the teachers constituency and the remaining eight by the graduate constituency.

    In the council elections, only the SP has emerged as the main rival of the BJP as the BSP has decided to keep itself away from the contest.

  • BJP announces four candidates for UP Legislative Council polls

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday announced the names of four of its candidates for the upcoming biennial polls for the 12 seats of state Legislative Council falling vacant on January 30.

    “The central election committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party has approved the names of Swatantra Dev Singh, Dr Dinesh Sharma, Laxman Prasad Acharya and Arvind Kumar Sharma, as candidates for the upcoming biennial election for Legislative Council in UP,” read a release issued by the BJP here on Friday.

    Swatantra Dev Singh is party’s UP chief and Dr Dinesh Sharma is one of the two Deputy Chief Ministers of the state.

    The other one is Keshav Prasad Maurya.

    While the process of filing nomination papers for council polls is under way till January 18, the voting for the dozen seats will take place on January 28. Counting of votes will be done one hour after the completion of polls.

    The total strength of UP State Council is 100. Of the 100 members, 38 are elected by the MLAs, 36 by the representatives of local bodies, 8 candidates are elected from teachers’ constituency and 8 from graduate constituency. Remaining 10 members are nominated to the upper house. The tenure of each member is that of 6 years.

    Currently, the BJP has 32 members in UP state council. On the basis of its strength in the state assembly, the party is set to win at least 10 seats in the upcoming polls on the basis of its strength in Assembly.

    The other parties including Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress have 55, 8 and 2 members respectively in the upper house.

    While Samajwadi Party can win one seat, BSP and Congress are not in a position to get their candidates through as BPS has just 18 members in the Assembly of which six had rebelled during last Rajya Sabha elections.

    Congress has 7 of which two – Aditi Singh and Rakesh Pratap Singh—both of Rae Bareli have already rebelled and sided with the BJP.

    Meanwhile, with Samajwadi Party (SP) having fielded two veteran leaders – Ahmad Hassan and Rajendra Chaudhary– as its candidates, the council elections have turned into a hot contest for the 12th seat.

    Twelve seats need to be filled in the Council, but the SP on its own strength — it has 48 MLAs, including Shivpal Yadav, the estranged uncle of party chief Akhilesh Yadav — can secure only one.

    By nominating a second candidate, it has made it an open game and would need the support of MLAs from other parties and even its rival BSP.

    The 12th seat would be hotly contested, setting the stage for rebellions and changing configurations and alliances as the State heads toward polls in 2022. The BSP has 18 MLAs on paper but at least half-a-dozen of them had rebelled against it in favour of the SP, bringing down its operative strength to 12.

    However, all eyes would be on which way the BSP MLAs would swing, as the party on its own cannot win any MLC seat, or if the party would field a candidate and expect support from the BJP, which would have several legislators to spare for the extra seat in case it fields only 10.

    After the rebellion by her MLAs, BSP chief Mayawati had taken the vow in November that she would ensure the defeat of the SP candidate in council polls even if she had to vote for the BJP. The Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party of Om Prakash Rajbhar, which was an ally of the BJP till 2019 but now a staunch opponent, has four MLAs, including Rajbhar himslef.

    MLA Vijay Mishra, who had contested from Bhadohi on a ticket of the Nishad Party, a BJP ally, is in jail after he was booked under several charges by the government.

    Three Independents, including Kunda MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, Aman Mani Tripathi from Maharajganj and Vinod Saroj from Pratapgarh may extend support to the BJP.