All 13 candidates, including 10 of the ruling BJP, one of its ally Apna Dal and one each of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party, were declared elected unopposed in the biennial polls to UP legislative Council on Thursday.
After the time of withdrawal ended at 3 pm on Thursday, Returning Officer Ashok Choubey said all 13 candidates were elected. However, these new members will take the oath of office after the present members’ terms expire on May 5.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his two Deputies Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dr Dinesh Sharma greeted the newly-elected members at the Vidhan Bhawan.
“The elected candidates will raise people’s issues to ensure that the government schemes reache bonafide beneficiaries. They will also bring the grey areas to the notice of thegovernment,” Yogi said.
The elected members are UP ministers Mahendra Singh and Mohsin Raza, Vijay Bahadur Pathak, Dr Sarojni Agarwal, Ashok Kataria, Vidya Sagar Sonkar, Jaiveer Singh, Yashwant Singh, Ashok Dhawan and Bhukkal Nawab(All of the BJP), Ashish Singh Patel (Apna Dal), Naresh Uttam (SP) and BR Ambedkar (BSP).
The Council members retiring on May 5 include Akhilesh Yadav, Ambika Chaudhary, Umar Ali Khan, Naresh Chandra Uttam, Dr Madhu Gupta, Rajendra Chaudhary, Ramsakal Gujjar, D Vijay Yadav (all SP), UP ministers Dr Mahendra Kumar Singh and Mohsin Raza (both BJP), Sunil Kumar Chittor and Dr Vijay Pratap (both BSP) and Chaudhary Mushtaq (RlD).
Even after this election, Samajwadi Party will continue to be the largest party with 55 members in the 100-member legislative Council. The BJP will have 21 members, BSP 8, Congress 2, Apna Dal 1 and others (including teachers) 12. The RlD will have no representation in the Upper House while one seat is vacant.