The ruling Samajwadi Party announced its candidates for 31 of the total 36 seats of the legislative Council to be elected from the local bodies’ constituencies on March 3. Close kin of two cabinet ministers and former Director of Basic Education department, Vasudev Yadav are among the prominent candidates announced on Tuesday.
Over half the candidates are from the Yadav community - the core vote bank of the SP. Traditionally, the ruling party wins the maximum number of seats from this constituency. In 2010, the ruling BSP had won as many as 35 seats of the Council. For the first time in four years of SP rule, loyalists of CM Akhilesh Yadav have been chosen over others for seats in the Upper House of the UP legislature.
Anand Bhadauria from Sitapur and Sunil Yadav from lucknow –Unnao seat, are both confidantes of the CM have been chosen by the party. In December 2015, both were expelled from the party for opposing the official candidates for Chairman of District Panchyat in Sitapur and Unnao. Incidentally, the rebel candidates romped home in both districts. Piqued over their expulsion, the Chief Minister had even skipped the inaugural ceremony of Saifai Mahatsov onDecember 26. The CM relented and attended the festival only after their expulsion was revoked.
Of the 31 candidates, a majority of 16 candidates are Yadavs, four are Muslims, two are women, one Brahmim, three Thakur and rest from Other Backward Castes. The SP has renominated party’s outgoing member and minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya’s cousin, Akshay Pratap Singh from Pratapgarh. The young faces are Anand Bhadauria from Sitapur and Sunil Singh Sajan from lucknow -Unnao.
The other candidates are — Parvej Ali from Moradabad- Bijnor seat , Banwari Singh Yadav from Budaun , Amit Yadav from Pilibhit -Shahjahanpur, Mirazuddin from Hardoi , Shashank Yadav from lakhimpur Kheri, Satyendra Pratap Singh from Sultanpur , Rakesh Yadav from Barabanki, Mohammad Imlaq Khan from Bahraich , Mahfooz Khan from Gonda , Hira lal Yadav from Faizabad, Braj Kishore Singh from Basti-Siddharth Nagar , Jai Prakash Yadav from Gorakhpur-Maharajganj, Ramawadh Yadav from Deoria, Rakesh Kumar Yadav from Azamgarh-Mau, lallan Prasad Yadav from Jaunpur, Amir Chand Patel from Varanasi , Vasudev Yadav from Allahabad, Ramesh Mishra from Banda-Hamirpur , Rama Niranjan from Jhansi-Jalaun-lalitpur , Kalllu Yadav from Kanpur-Fatehpur , Padmaraj Pammi Jain from Etawah-Farrukhabad, Dilip Yadav from Agra-Firozabad , Arvind Pratap Yadav from Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri , Thakur Udayveer Singh Dhakre from Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri, Omvati Yadav from Aligarh , Narendra Singh Bhati from Bulandshahr, Rakesh Yadav from Meerut-Ghaziabad and Mukesh Choudhury from Muzaffarnagar-Saharanpur.
The seats where the candidates were yet to be announced are Rae Bareli, Ballia, Ghazipur, Mirzapur-Sonebhadra and Barabanki. Of the 36 members who retired on January 15, 34 were of the BSP and one each from SP and Congress.
The elected representatives of the three Panchyat bodies, Urban local Bodies, MlAs and MPs of the district, constitute the Electoral College for the election of the Council seats from the local bodies’ constituency. The Election Commission of India would issue notification for the polls on February 8. The last date for filing of nominations is February 15 while scrutiny would be held on February 16. The last date for withdrawal would be February 18 and polling would be held onMarch 3 and theresults will be out on March 6.
