After the nail-biting biennial Rajya Sabha elections on March 23, Uttar Pradesh is set to witness another political fight during the biennial elections to 13 seats of legislative Council on April 26.
The term of 13 legislative Council members from Assembly constituency will come to an end on May 5. Prominent among those retiring is Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Members for the 100-member Upper House of UP legislature are elected from Assembly constituency, Graduate constituency, Teachers’ constituency, local Bodies constituency and those nominated by the Governor on recommendations of the Chief Minister.
As per the election schedule announced by Election Commission, the process of filing of nomination papers will commence from April 9 and April 16 will be the last day for filing papers while the scrutiny of papers will be held on April 17. The last date of withdrawals will be April 19 and polling will be held on April 26 from 9 am to 4 pm and counting of votes will be taken up from 5 pm the same day. like Rajya Sabha elections, the ruling BJP will be a major gainer in the Council polls where it is set to win at least 11 out of the total 13 seats. The Samajwadi Party can win one seat while the Opposition parties are likely to field a joint candidate for the 13th seat.
The BJP will like to repeat its feat during Rajya Sabha polls to demoralise the Opposition before the 2019 lok Sabha elections.
The SP, BSP leaders are, however, confident that the BJP may not be able to repeat the misadventure of Rajya Sabha polls as it will strengthen the anti-Dalit perception about it. Moreover, the BJP will have only 5 surplus votes in Council elections against 28 surplus votes during Rajya Sabha polls.
This time the prospect of a joint Opposition candidate is bright as the candidate will require 29 first preference votes to get elected. The BJP-led NDA, which has 324 MlAs, can easily get 11 seats and have 5 surplus votes. With BSP’s Anil Singh and SP’s Nitin Agarwal defecting to its side, the BJP tally has gone up to 326.
On the other hand, the SP with 46 MlAs (after defection of Nitin Agarwal), can get at least one member elected with 17 votes to spare. With 17 surplus votes of the SP, 18 MlAs of the BSP (after defection of Anil Singh) and seven of the Congress, the joint Opposition candidate is likely to bag the 13th seat. The Opposition, however, fears cross-voting by MlAs as elections to legislative Council are through secret ballots.
The strength of the Opposition in the Council will be reduced after the elections. The tally of the main Opposition will be reduced to 55 against the present 61. The BSP tally in the Council will dip from nine to seven as two of its members, legislative Council leader Sunil Chittor and MlC Vijay Pratap, are retiring. The Rashtriya lok Dal will not have any representation in the Council and its lone MlC Chaudhary Mushtaq is retiring. Two UP ministers Mahendra Kumar Singh and Mohsin Raza’s term will also end on May 5 and they can be renominated by the BJP.
Council members whose term is ending on May 5 are Akhilesh Yadav, Ambika Chaudhary, Umar Ali Khan, Naresh Chandra Uttam, Dr Madhu Gupta, Rajendra Chaudhary, Ramsakal Gujjar, D Vijay Yadav (all SP), Mahendra Kumar Singh and Mohsin Raza (both BJP), Sunil Kumar Chittor and Dr Vijay Pratap (both BSP) and Chaudhary Mushtaq ( RlD).