The Bharatiya Janata Party released its list of nine candidates for the upcoming biennial UP Legislative Council elections on Wednesday, giving ticket to seven ministers of the Yogi Adityanath council of ministers, including Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.
The deputy chief minister is already a member of the upper House of UP Legislature and his term is to expire on July 6.
In the recent assembly elections, Maurya lost from his bastion Sirathu in Kaushambi and was defeated by Pallavi Patel of Apna Dal (Kamerawadi).
It is mandatory for Maurya and other ministers to be a member of any House of the UP Legislature within six months of being sworn in as minister.
Besides Maurya, the other ministers whose names were announced by the party include, Panchayati Raj Minister Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh, Co-operative Minister JPS Rathore, Minister of State for Backward Classes Welfare Narendra Kashyap, Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge) Dayashankar Mishra Dayalu, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Industrial Development Jaswant Saini and Minister of State for Minority Welfare Danish Azad Ansari.
Among these, Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh is also an MLC and his tenure is to end on July 6. The rest are not members of any House.
The BJP has also given tickets to former MLA Banwari Lal Dohre and BJP Lucknow City president Mukesh Sharma.