Political activities in Uttar Pradesh will gain momentum for the crucial biennial elections to fill 12 vacant seats of the state legislative council from the assembly constituency next month.
The tenure of these seats would end on January 30 and the election commission is slated to hold the elections sometimes in mid of January.
Official sources said that in the biennial polls to legislative council, the ruling Samajwadi Party could win seven seats while the BSP could manage two 2 seats and the BJP one. The Congress with the help of other parties can also win one seat while the fate of the 12th seat would be decided by the ruling Samajwadi Party and its allies.
To win a seat, a candidate would be required first preferential support from 36 MlAs.
In the 403 member Vidhan Sabha ruling SP has 235 MlAs followed by 80 of BSP, 41 of BJP, 28 of Congress, 8 of RlD, 4 of Peace Party, six independents, 2 of Quami Ekta Dal and one each of TMC, NCP and IMC.
The members whose term would expire include state health minister and leader of the House Ahmed Hasan, leader of the opposition and BSP member Nasimuddin Siddiqui. Other members are : Ashok Kumar Sidharth, Pratap Singh Bahgel, lokesh Prajapati, Mahesh Arya and Dharamprakash Bharati (all BSP), Dr Sarojni Agarwal and Ramesh Yadav (both SP), Vinod Pandey and Babu Ram MCom (both BJP) and Dr Om Prakash Tripathi of the Congress.
Re-election Ahmad Hasan and Siddiqui is a foregone conclusion. Other candidates woud be declared by the ened of this month.
This election will give an opportunity to the ruling SP to increase its number in the legislative council by nine as they will be able to appoint nominated members after May 15. Presently, all these members are from the BSP.
The nominated BSP members whose term would expire in May are - Kamlakant, Naushad Ali, Shivbodh Ram, M l Tomar, Ramchandra Pradhan, Dr Meghraj Singh, Vinay Shakya, Banwari Singh Yadav and Dr Gopal Narain Mishra.