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BJP sweeps council polls, wins 33 out of 36 seats
Results take saffron party past the midpoint in the 100-member UP council; Independent Annapurna Singh claims Varanasi; the other two seats go to another Independent and a candidate from the Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) party; Samajwadi Party draws a blank.
A month after its thumping victory in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the BJP on Tuesday swept the biennial polls to the state’s legislative council (local bodies) by winning 24 of 27 constituencies where polling took place on April 9, informed UP chief electoral officer AK Shukla.
In addition, it was earlier elected unopposed in nine seats, thus taking its total to 33 of the 36 constituencies in these elections to the state’s Upper House.
The other three seats were bagged by two independents and a candidate from the Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) party. The Samajwadi Party, the main opposition in the state, drew a blank.
The results took BJP past the midpoint in the 100-member UP council. Earlier, the saffron party had touched the 100-mark in the Rajya Sabha for the first time.
Before the polls, the BJP had 32 members in House. This is the first time in 40 years when any political party achieved absolute majority in the UP council.
The BJP suffered a setback in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency, where it stood distant third.
In Varanasi, BJP’s Sudama Patel stood third with just 170 votes as Independent candidate Annapurna Singh secured a resounding victory with 4,234 votes. Samajwadi Party’s Umesh Yadav got 345 votes. Annapurna Singh is wife of muscleman Brajesh Singh.
The BJP lost the Pratapgarh seat to Akhshya Kumar Singh of Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) party while
the Azamgarh seat also went to independent candidate Vikrant Singh, son of sitting BJP MLC Yashwant Singh, who was expelled from the party recently.
The 36 seats, for which polls were held, came under 35 local body constituencies spreading over 58 districts. Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri constituency had two seats while rest had one seat each.
With these results, the BJP’s tally in the 100-member Upper House goes up to 65 since the party already had 32 members. The SP has 17 MLCs and the the Bahujan Samaj Party four.
The Congress, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad party have one member each in the House. The teachers’ group has 2 MLCs, while the Independent group (’Nirdal Samooh’) and Independents have 1 MLC each.
This is for the first time in the BJP’s electoral history in Uttar Pradesh that the saffron party has got nearly 2/3rd majority in the Vidhan Parishad, a development that will help it get bills passed easily with the party having smashing numbers in both the Houses.
“The BJP’s highest tally in the Vidhan Parishad was 54 when the house’s strength was 108 before the hill state of Uttarakhand was carved out of UP in 2000,” a Vidhan Parisahd official said while requesting anonymity.
Another record
The BJP’s record making does not stop here. A party, an official said, was all set to make yet another record by July-August when its strength in the Upper House would further be bolstered helping it attain 3/4th majority.
“The governor will be nominating 6 members to the Upper House in next two months and all the nominated members are practically ruling party MLCs,” the official said.
“Then, the polls to 11 MLC seats under the assembly constituencies are due in July this year. It is pre-decided that the BJP will get 9 of these eleven seats while the remaining 2 will go to the SP,” he added.
