Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his two deputies —Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma — and two Ministers of State Swatantra Dev Singh and Mohsin Raza will contest legislative Council (lC) by-elections. This was approved by the Central Parliamentary Board of the BJP on Wednesday.

The CM and four candidates are likely to file their nomination papers in lucknow on Thursday. Principal Secretary of Assembly Secretariat, Pradeep Kumar Dube is the Returning Officer for the by-poll. The by-election for all five seats will be for legislative Council.

With MlAs voting in the by-elections, the victory of all BJP nominees is a foregone conclusion given the party’s huge majority in the Assembly. Five MlCs of Samajwadi Party and one from Bahujan Samaj Party had resigned recently and also spoke in favour of the Yogi Government. Political observers believe they did so to facilitate the entry of the CM and his cabinet colleagues to the Council.

All five BJP leaders are not members of either House of State legislature and are required to obtain membership before the completion of six months after taking oath of office to continue in the cabinet, the deadline for which ends on September 18.

Yogi Aditynath and Kesahv Prasad Maurya are lok Sabha members and are likely to resign once they win the Council by-polls.

The last date for filing nominations is September 5 and the date of withdrawal of papers is September 8. Polling, if necessary, will be held on September 15.

On August 24, the Election Commission announced by-elections to only four of the six Council seats which fell vacant. However on Wednesday, the EC issued a notification for by-poll to five seats of the Council and a notification for the fifth seat will be issued on Thursday.