The tenure of 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh is set to conclude on April 2, 2024, while the tenure of 13 seats of the UP Legislative Council will end on May 5, 2024. A fierce political contest is anticipated between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party for these seats, prompting veterans from both parties to strategically plan their moves.
To secure a position in the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Parishad, an MLC requires the votes of 29 MLAs. The political landscape shifted after the 2022 assembly elections in UP, with the SP boasting of 118 MLAs, including 109 from SP and nine from Rashtriya Lok Dal. On the other hand, the National Democratic Alliance has 279 MLAs –254 from the BJP, 13 from Apna Dal (Sonelal), six from the NISHAD Party and six from Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP).
The Congress has two MLAs, the Bahujan Samaj Party one, and the Jansatta Dal two, potentially influencing the outcome based on their support.
As per the current projections, the BJP is poised to secure at least nine seats in the legislative council while the SP alliance could win four seats. Notably, this positions the SP to claim the post of leader of opposition in the legislative council as it requires just one more seat to meet the standard of 1/10th members of the House.
In the Rajya Sabha’s UP quota, the BJP currently holds 9 out of 10 seats. Its Rajya Sabha members include Anil Aggarwal, Ashok Bajpayee, Anil Jain, Kanta Kardam, Sakaldeep Rajbhar, GVL Narasimha Rao, Vijay Pal Tomar, Sudhanshu Trivedi and Harnath Singh Yadav. The Samajwadi Party has a single member in the Rajya Sabha from UP, Jaya Bachchan, whose tenure is concluding.
With 13 seats in the UP Legislative Council set to become vacant on May 5, political efforts are underway to secure the MLCs. The BJP holds 10 of these seats, Apna Dal (Sonelal), SP and BSP one seat each. Elections for these seats are scheduled to take place before the specified date.
Noteworthy among the departing legislative council members are Yashwant Singh, Vijay Bahadur Pathak, Vidya Sagar Sonkar, Sarojini Aggarwal, Ashok Kataria, Ashok Dhawan, Bukkal Nawab, Mahendra Kumar Singh, Mohsin Raza, and Nirmala Paswan from the BJP. Additionally, the tenures of Ashish Patel from Apna Dal (S) and Naresh Uttam from SP will also conclude, adding intensity to the impending political dynamics.