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UP Legislative council polls: Four seats, five contenders!
With barely a month left and only four vacancies being announced in Uttar Pradesh’s Legislative Council, it seems that one of the five contenders will have to quit.
Uttar Pradesh Chief minister Yogi Adityanath and four of his ministerial colleagues, who are not members of either house of the UP Assembly, have to become one before September 18--a Constitutional obligation they have to fulfil within six months of assuming office.
With barely a month left and only four vacancies being announced in Uttar Pradesh’s Legislative Council, it seems that one of the five contenders will have to quit. On Thursday, the Election Commission released the schedule for by-polls to these seats in the Legislative Council. These seats fell vacant following the resignation of four Samajwadi Party (SP) legislators namely Buqqal Nawab, Yashwant Singh, Sarojini Agarwal and Ashok Bajpai.
The terms of Nawab and Singh were to end in 2022 and those of Agarwal and Bajpai in 2021. However, they quit all of a sudden this month. Sarojini Agarwal, Ashok Bajpai and Buqqal Nawab have since joined the BJP.
According to the EC schedule, the notification for by-polls will be issued on August 29, the last date of filing nominations is September 5, the scrutiny of the nominations would be done the next day and the last date of withdrawal of candidature is September 8.
“Polling will be held on September 15 between 9 am and 4 pm, counting of votes will be done the same day starting 5 pm,” under secretary with the poll panel Suman Kumar Das said. “The poll process will be completed before September 18,” Das added.
While no names have yet been declared by any party for the by-polls, speculation is rife in political circles that the four seats would be used to send CM Yogi Adityanath, his two deputies Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma and either transport minister Swatantra Dev Singh or minority affairs minister Mohsin Raza to the state assembly.
