The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday announced the schedule for the biennial elections to the 12 seats of upper house of the UP Legislature, the legislative council. The polling will be held on January 28.
According to the UP’s chief electoral officer (CEO) officer, the term of the 12 seats is ending on January 31. The notification for the biennial polls will be issued on January 11 and the last date for filing of the nominations will be January 18.
Scrutiny of papers will be done on January 19 and candidates can withdraw their nomination papers till January 21. If required, polling will be held on January 28 from 9 am to 4 pm, and counting of votes from 5 pm. All members of the UP Assembly are eligible to cast their votes in this election.
The ruling BJP is set to win 10 seats while the SP may win one seat on the basis of its present strength in the assembly.
Among the outgoing members, six are of SP, two of BSP, three of BJP and one disqualified. The present chairman of the legislative council, Ramesh Yadav, who is from SP, will also retire. The members whose tenure will expire are Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma, UP BJP president Swantra Deo Singh and Laxman Acharya, Nasimuddin Siddiqui (disqualified), Dharamveer Ashok, Pradeep Jatav, Ahmed Hasan, Ashu Mallick, Ramesh Yadav, Ram Jatan Rajbhar, Virendra Singh and Sahib Singh Saini. In the legislative council, the SP enjoys the majority with 55 members in the total strength of 100 while BJP has 25 members.