Officials said that in the biennial elections to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, more than 90 percent voting was done till 2 pm on Saturday. Voting for 27 seats under local authorities’ constituencies began at 8 am.
According to the Election Commission of India, the state recorded an average voter turnout of 90.42 per cent till 2 pm, with Barabanki recording the lowest voter turnout of 84 per cent, while Ghazipur constituency recorded the highest turnout of 94.67 per cent. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who arrived early to exercise his franchise, said that “after four decades, a situation has come when a ruling party (BJP) will be able to garner a bigger mandate even in the Legislative Council”. ,
According to the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh, 95 candidates are in the fray and voting is going on in 739 centres. 1,20,657 voters are expected to exercise their franchise in these elections. Adityanath, who voted in the Gorakhpur-Maharajganj constituency, said in a tweet in Hindi, “For the creation of a new Uttar Pradesh, and for the victory of good governance, (I) discharged my duty by voting in the biennial elections. Earlier in another tweet he had urged people to vote for victory of development, nationalism and good governance and said that “Your one vote will give strength to the journey of becoming a self-reliant Uttar Pradesh”.
“In the recent assembly election, the BJP (like 2017) won more than two-thirds of the seats and formed a strong government. After four decades a situation has come when the ruling party will be able to garner a massive mandate even in the Legislative Council (Samajwadi Party) used to play a negative role and hinder development and welfare programmes. But, I hope this is the case. In the elections, we will get a huge mandate in the Legislative Council and development and welfare programs will go ahead with a spurt.”
Union Minister Smriti Irani casts her vote in Amethi, from where she is a Lok Sabha MP. Voting is being held for local body constituencies- Moradabad-Bijnor, Rampur-Bareilly, Pilibhit-Shahjahanpur, Sitapur, Lucknow-Unnao, Rae Bareilly, Pratapgarh, Sultanpur, Barabanki, Bahraich, Gonda, Faizabad, Basti-Siddharthnagar, Gorakhpur. Maharajganj, Deoria, Azamgarh-Mau, Ballia, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Jhansi-Jalaun-Lalitpur, Kanpur-Fatehpur, Etawah-Farukhabad, Agra-Firozabad, Meerut-Ghaziabad and Muzaffarnagar-Saharanpur. These seats are spread across 58 districts of the state, and polling will end at 4 pm while the counting of votes will take place on April 12. Nine MLCs have been elected unopposed from the constituencies of eight local officials – Badaun, Hardoi, Kheri, Mirzapur-Sonbhadra, Banda-Hamirpur, Aligarh, Bulandshahr and Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri.
Two MLCs were elected unopposed from the Mathura-Eta-Mainpuri local authority’s constituency, while from the rest of the constituencies, one MLC each was elected unopposed. After a resounding victory in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP has set its sights on becoming the single largest party in the state Legislative Council as well as securing a majority out of 36 seats in the Upper House. This is an opportunity for the saffron party to enjoy a majority in both the houses of the Uttar Pradesh Legislature. In the 100-member Legislative Council, the BJP currently has 34 MLCs, the SP 17 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) four. Congress, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party have one member each. The teachers’ group has two MLCs, while the independent group – the Independent group – and the independents have one MLC each. At present 38 seats are vacant.
The voters in this biennial election are village headmen, members and presidents of block development councils, members and presidents of district panchayats and corporators in urban areas. MLAs and MPs are also voters in this poll. The Congress and the BSP have not fielded any candidates in the Legislative Council elections, making it a direct contest between the BJP and the SP, the main opposition in the state assembly. Of the 36 BJP candidates, five are former SP leaders, who had joined the saffron camp on the eve of the February-March state elections.
They are Shailendra Pratap Singh from Sultanpur Local Authority Constituency, CP Chand from Gorakhpur-Maharajganj Local Authority, Ravi Shankar Singh ‘Pappu’, grandson of former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar from Ballia Local Authorities, Ram Niranjan from Jhansi-Jalaun-Lalitpur Local Authorities and Bulandshahr Local Authorities. From Narendra Bhati.
The SP announced its candidates for 34 seats, excluding the Meerut-Ghaziabad and Bulandshahr seats for its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal. Dr Kafeel Khan from Deoria, Mashkoor Ahmed from Rampur-Bareilly, MLC Sunil Kumar Sajan, Rajesh Kumar and Udayveer Singh have been fielded from Lucknow-Unnao, Barabanki and Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri seats respectively. Adityanath has recently left the Legislative Council seat after being elected MLA from Gorakhpur Urban seat.
With the death of Leader of the Opposition in the Council Ahmed Hassan on February 19 after a prolonged illness, the SP has nominated Sanjay Lather to the post. In the recently concluded Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, the BJP has won 255 of the 403 assembly seats, while its allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad Party have won 12 and six seats respectively. The SP won 111 seats, while its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal won eight. SBSP, another ally of the Samajwadi Party, won six seats. Congress has won two seats, while BSP has won one seat.
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