Ten BJP candidates file nomination for UP legislative council polls

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma and former IAS officer AK Sharma were among 10 BJP candidates who filed their nomination for the biennial polls to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council on Monday.

Besides them, an independent candidate, Mahesh Chandra Sharma, also filed his nomination for the coming elections, Returning Officer, B.B Dubey said.

Monday is the last day for the filing of nominations for 12 legislative council seats, which will fall vacant on January 30.

The scrutiny of papers will be held on January 19 and names can be withdrawn till January 21.

The polling is scheduled to take place on January 28 and the counting will be done an hour after the completion of the polls

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and senior ministers were present during the filing of nominations.

Those who filed their nominations include state unit BJP president Swatantra Dev Singh Lakshman Prasad Acharya, Kunwar Manvendra Singh, Govind Narayan Shukla, Salil Bishnoi, Ashwani Tyagi, Dharamveer Prajapati and Surendra Chaudhary.

The BJP has aasserted that it will win 10 out of 12 seats. In the 403-member UP Legislative Assembly, the BJP has 310 MLAs, SP 49, BSP 18, Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 9, Congress 7 and the SBSP 4.

There are three Independent MLAs while the RLD and the Nishad Party have one MLA each.

Of the 12 MLCs whose tenure is expiring, six are from the Samajwadi Party (SP). They include Ramesh Yadav, Ahmed Hasan, Ashu Malik, Sahab Singh Saini, Ramjatan Rajbhar and Virendra Singh.

The tenure of BSP's Pradeep Jatav and Dharamveer Ashok is also coming to an end. The term of Naseemudin Siddiqui, who left the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and joined the Congress, is also coming to an end.