News Analysis India

Tag: UP legislative council

  • Newly elected members of UP Legislative Council take oath

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: The 36 new members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, who were recently elected from local authority constituencies, took oath here on Tuesday.

    UP Legislative Council chairman Kunwar Manvendra Singh administered the oath of office to the newly elected members. All the members took oath in Hindi, while some of them raised the slogan of “Jai Shri Ram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai” after the oath-taking ceremony.

    Prominent among those who took the oath are Minister of State (independent charge) Dinesh Pratap Singh, who was elected from Rae Bareli constituency. Two independent MLCs and MLC of Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) from Pratapgarh, Akshay Pratap Singh also took oath on the day.

    Rest of the winning legislators are from the BJP.

    A court in Pratapgarh had recently cancelled the bail of Akshay Pratap Singh and ordered his arrest in a case of getting arms licence on a fake address, a government counsel said on Saturday.

    Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, UP BJP chief and cabinet minister Swatantra Dev Singh were also present on the occasion.

    A month after its resounding victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP swept the biennial polls to the state’s legislative council by winning 33 out of 36 constituencies. One of the three local authority seats it failed to bag was in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency, where it stood a distant third.

    According to the results declared on April 12, the BJP won 24 of the 27 seats, where polling was held last week.

    In addition, the BJP had won nine of the 36 seats unopposed. Two independents and a candidate from the Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) emerged victorious in the elections. The results take the BJP past the halfway-mark in the 100-member House.

    Now, it will have 67 members in the Upper House of the state legislature. Before the polls, the BJP had 34 members in the House.

    In the 100-member Legislative Council, the BJP will now have 67 MLCs, Samajwadi Party (SP) 17 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) four. The Congress, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and the NISHAD party have one member each in the House.

    The teachers’ group has two MLCs, while the independent group (Nirdal Samooh) and Independents have one MLC each.

    Meanwhile, Adityanath had vacated his council seat recently, while former leader of opposition Ahmad Hassan of the SP died in February this year.

    The voters in this biennial election are village pradhans, members and chairmen of block development councils and zila panchayats, and corporators in urban areas.

    Members of legislative assembly (MLAs) and members of parliament (MPs) also vote.

    The Congress and the BSP did not field any candidate in the legislative council elections, making it a direct fight between the BJP and the SP.

  • Polling for 36 UP Legislative Council seats Saturday, BJP eyes majority in both Houses

    By PTI

    LUCKNOW: Following a resounding victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, the BJP has set its eye on becoming the single-largest party in the state Legislative Council as well by winning a majority of the 36 Upper House seats going to polls on Saturday.

    These seats are spread across 35 local authorities’ constituencies.

    The biennial poll was earlier planned on two dates but now it will be conducted together on April 9.

    Counting will take place on April 12.

    It is an opportunity for the saffron party to enjoy a majority in both the Houses of the Uttar Pradesh Legislature.

    Ninety-five candidates are in the fray.

    Voting will take place from 8 am to 4 pm at 739 polling centres with 1,20,657 voters expected to exercise their franchise, the chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh said.

    The voters in this biennial election are village pradhans, members and chairman of block development councils, members and chairman of Zila panchayat, and corporators in urban areas.

    MLAs and MPs are also voters in this poll.

    Adityanath, an MLA from Gorakhpur Urban, will cast his vote in Gorakhpur on Saturday at the polling booth in the municipal corporation, official sources said.

    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 Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri local authorities’ constituency, while from the rest of the constituencies, one MLC each was elected unopposed.

    In the 100-member Legislative Council, the BJP has 34 MLCs, the Samajwadi Party 17 and the Bahujan Samaj Party four.

    The Congress, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and NISHAD party have one member each in the House.

    The Teachers’ group has two MLCs, while the independent group (‘Nirdal Samooh’) and Independents have one MLC each.

    As many as 37 seats are vacant at present.

    Addressing BJP workers a week ago, Chief Minister Adityanath said it was important for the party to win the 36 seats to advance his government’s growth agenda without any hurdle.

    “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-third majority in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council and have no problem in taking forward the development schemes expeditiously.”

    The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party have not fielded any candidate in the legislative council polls, making it a straight fight between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party, the principal opposition 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 polls.

    They are Shailendra Pratap Singh from Sultanpur local authority constituency, C P 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.

    The Samajwadi Party has declared its candidates for 34 seats, leaving the Meerut-Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr constituencies for its ally the Rashtriya Lok Dal.

    Prominent among those who have been fielded are Dr Kafeel Khan from Deoria, Mashkoor Ahmad from Rampur-Bareilly, sitting MLCs Sunil Kumar Sajan, Rajesh Kumar and Udayveer Singh from Lucknow-Unnao, Barabanki, and Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri seats respectively.

    Adityanath has recently quit the Legislative Council seat after getting elected as an MLA from Gorakhpur Urban seat.

    With the death of Leader of the Opposition in the Council Ahmad Hasan on February 19 after a prolonged illness, the Samajwadi Party has named Sanjay Lathar to the post.

    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 the Rashtriya Lok Dal has won eight.

    SBSP, another ally of the Samajwadi Party, has won six seats.

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

  • Will contest assembly polls if party decides: UP CM Yogi Adityanath 

    By PTI

    GORAKHPUR: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday, November 5, 2021, said he will contest the forthcoming assembly polls if his party decides so.

    Adityanath is currently a member of the UP Legislative Council.

    Asked if he will contest the assembly polls early next year, the BJP leader told reporters here, “I have always contested elections and I will contest from wherever the party will say.”

    “The party has a parliamentary board and it decides who will contest from where,” he said in reply to another question.

    Adityanath said the BJP government has done whatever the party promised in the run-up to the last assembly polls in 2017.

    On the law and order situation, he said, the state has set an example and during the past over four years there was no riot and all festivals, including Diwali, were celebrated peacefully.

    “Diwali used to be celebrated earlier too and Kumbh Mela was not organised for the first time in the state. But Uttar Pradesh was struggling with an image crisis and after 2017, the state got over the image crisis. The benefits of different schemes have reached the last man in society,” he said.

    The chief minister said the state has now become the best destination in the country for investment from abroad due to good road connectivity and guarantee of security.

    “Earlier investments went out, but now investment is coming to the country from outside. Earlier people used to say that UP starts with potholes and ditches and now it is known for expressways and a network of four-lane roads,” he said.

    He said the Purvanchal Expressway will be inaugurated this month.

    “About 4.5 lakh people got jobs in a transparent manner during this period and no one could raise a finger on the recruitment process,” he added, listing his government’s various achievements.

  • Kunwar Manvendra Singh administered oath as Acting Chairman of UP Legislative Council

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: Kunwar Manvendra Singh was Sunday administered the oath of office as the acting chairman of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

    The oath was administered by Governor Anandiben Patel at a function held at Raj Bhavan, officials said.

    The tenure of incumbent chairman Ramesh Yadav ended on January 30.

    Singh was among the 10 BJP and two Samajwadi Party candidates who were elected unopposed to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council on January 21.

    Those elected also included Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, former IAS officer A K Sharma and state BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh.

    Kunwar Manvendra Singh was earlier the acting chairman of UP Legislative Council from May 2002 to August 2004.

    Mahesh Kumar Gupta, the Additional Chief Secretary to Governor, and other officials were also present on the occasion.

  • UP: Congress, BJP lock horns over Savarkar’s portrait in House gallery

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: A portrait of Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar in the picture gallery of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council has sparked a row.

    Ruling BJP and Congress party have locked horns after UP CM Yogi Adityanath unveiled Savarkar’s portrait in the picture gallery on Tuesday. The picture gallery has recently been renovated. The Congress party objected to the installation of the portrait which found a place among other freedom fighters.

    Congress MLA Deepak Singh wrote a letter to Vidhan Parishad chairman Ramesh Yadav seeking the removal of the photo saying it was an insult to the great freedom fighters of the country who made sacrifices to win the freedom withstanding the atrocities during the British Raj.

    “The installation of Savarkar portrait is an insult to the freedom fighters who bore all kinds of torture but never bowed down before British,” Singh said in the letter to chairman Ramesh Yadav. The Congress MLC also demanded the Council chairman to get the portrait of Savarkar shifted to BJP’s parliamentary office on the premises of Vidhan Bhawan.

    The MLC wrote: “Under your chairmanship, the UP government has renovated and beautified the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council. I thank them for that but I request with great sorrow that it is an insult to the great freedom fighters to install a picture of Savarkar among the portraits of the freedom fighters andthe greatmen who gave their life for the country. 

    “A few months after Savarkar went to jail, he wrote a letter to the British Government that if the British government forgave him, he would disassociate himself from the freedom struggle and showed loyalty to the British government. He got out of jail and joined the British and campaigned against the Indians. In such a situation, it is objectionable to put his picture amidst the portraits of the freedom fighters.”

    “What message would be conveyed to those who come to the picture gallery on a study trip. What will they learn?” asked the Congress MLC in his letter.

    Earlier, on Tuesday, inaugurating the renovated picture gallery of the Vidhan Parishad, CM Yogi had unveiled Savarkar’s portrait saying the personality of Vir Savarkar was an inspiration for the countrymen.

    While the right-wing organisations praise Savarkar calling him a great patriot and inspiration for his contribution to the freedom struggle, Congress tends to link him with the assassins of Mahatma Gandhi.

    In a retort to the Congress MLC’s letter, state cabinet minister Siddharth Nath Singh called it Congress’ misfortune that its leaders and MLCs did not know the history. “They want to keep history confined to the family. History is very vast,” said the minister.

    He added that Savarkar was one of those who wrote tales of valour for India. “Congress MLCs should know that Indira Gandhi had praised him. They should recall what she had said. Congress should stop insulting patriots whose names should have been included in history,” said Singh.

    Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said there should be a debate over the contributions made by people to the country’s freedom struggle. There are many against whom stories are in vogue raising a finger on their roles, said Akhilesh.

    Earlier, the politics over Jinnah’s portrait had rocked Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) when the BJP MP from Aligarh had written to the university administration seeking removal of Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s portrait from the Student Union central Hall.

  • Ten BJP, 2 SP candidates set to be elected unopposed to UP Legislative Council

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: Decks have been cleared for the unopposed election of 12 candidates, including 10 from the BJP, to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council with the nomination paper of an independent nominee being rejected during scrutiny of papers on Tuesday.

    The nomination papers of independent Mahesh Chandra Sharma, who filed his papers on Monday, was rejected during scrutiny of papers, Returning Officer B.B Dubey said.

    With this, there are 12 candidates left for as many seats for the biennial election, he said.

    Sharma’s paper was rejected as it did not have proposers and also the receipt of payment of fees, Dubey said.

    Ten candidates of the BJP and two of the Samajwadi Party are now poised to get elected to the upper house unopposed.

    A formal announcement in this regard would be made on Thursday afternoon if there is no withdrawal of nomination, Dubey said.

    As per the schedule for the election, names can be withdrawn till January 21.

    The polling was scheduled to take place on January 28 and the counting soon after the completion of the polls.

    On the last date of filing of nomination papers on Monday, BJP candidates including Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma and former IAS A.K Sharma had filed their papers in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and senior ministers.

    Others who filed their nominations include state unit BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh, Lakshman Prasad Acharya, Kunwar Manvendra Singh, Govind Narayan Shukla, Salil Bishnoi, Ashwani Tyagi, Dharamveer Prajapati and Surendra Chaudhary.

    Last week, Samajwadi Party candidates Ahmed Hasan and Rajendra Chaudhary had filed their papers in the presence of party president Akhilesh Yadav.

    Of the 12 MLCs whose tenure is expiring, six are from the Samajwadi Party.

    They include Ramesh Yadav, Ahmed Hasan, Ashu Malik, Sahab Singh Saini, Ramjatan Rajbhar and Virendra Singh.

    Those from the BJP are Deputy Chief Minister Sharma, state unit president Swatantra Dev Singh and Laxman Acharya.

    The tenure of BSP’s Pradeep Jatav and Dharamveer Ashok is also coming to an end.

    The term of Naseemudin Siddiqui, who left the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and joined the Congress, is also coming to an end.

  • Election Commission issues notification for biennial elections to 12 UP legislative council seats

    By PTI
    LUCKNOW: The Election Commission of India on Monday issued a notification for the biennial election to 12 legislative council seats in Uttar Pradesh, which will fall vacant later this month.

    The MLCs whose terms are ending include UP Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, Chairman of UP Legislative Council Ramesh Yadav, and UP BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh.

    The 12 seats in the UP legislative council will get vacant on January 30 as the term of the members is coming to an end, UP’s Chief Electoral Officer A K Shukla said.

    Polling will be held on January 28 and counting of votes will be done one hour after the completion of polls as per established practice.

    Nominations for the biennial polls can be filed till January 18 and scrutiny of the same will be held on January 19.

    The withdrawal of names can be done till January 21.

    Of the 12 MLCs whose tenure is expiring, six are from the Samajwadi Party (SP)–Ramesh Yadav, Ahmed Hasan, Ashu Malik, Sahab Singh Saini, Ramjatan Rajbhar and Virendra Singh.

    Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, UP party chief Swatantra Dev Singh and Laxman Acharya are from the BJP.

    The tenure of BSP’s Pradeep Jatav and Dharamveer Ashok is also coming to an end.

    The term of Naseemudin Siddiqui, who left the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and joined the Congress, is also coming to an end.

    The poll panel had earlier issued guidelines to be followed during the entire election process.

    These guidelines state that every person shall wear a face mask during all election-related activities.

    At the entry of hall/room/premises used for election purposes, thermal scanning of all persons shall be carried out, and sanitiser made available at all locations.

    Social distancing shall be maintained as per the extant COVID-19 guidelines of the state government and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

    The chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh has been directed to depute a senior officer from the state to ensure that the extant instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the election, the Election Commission added.