Yogi Adityanath to file Vidhan Parishad nomination today

Taking first step for becoming a member of the Uttar Pradesh legislature, chief minister Yogi Adityanath would file his nomination papers for the Vidhan Parishad (Upper House) poll on Tuesday.

Four of his other state council of minister colleagues would also file their respective nominations as well, including two deputy CMs Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya, apart from two ministers Swatantra Dev Singh and Mohsin Raza. All of the five leaders are still not members of the state legislature.

As per statute, a member of the council of ministers, including CM, is required to get elected to either of the two houses (Vidhan Sabha or Vidhan Parishad) within six months of assuming office. Since, Yogi council of ministers had taken oath on March 19, 2017, they are required to get elected to the legislature by September 18 for continuing in their public posts.

While, Yogi and Maurya are sitting Members of Parliament from Gorakhpur and Phoolpur (Allahabad) constituencies respectively, the remaining three are not members of any house. Sharma was the Lucknow Mayor before becoming a deputy CM.

Over the past 5-6 weeks, six UP Members of Legislative Council (MLCs) had resigned from their seats, including five Samajwadi Party (SP) members viz. Bukkal Nawab, Yashwant Singh, Sarojini Agarwal, Ashok Bajpai and Ambika Chaudhary, apart from a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLC Thakur Jaivir Singh.

These resignations were credited to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) floor managers to save these leaders face direct poll for Vidhan Sabha, which could present an opportunity to the opposition to unite and divert the attention of the party from its agenda.

Except for Chaudhary, all these SP and BSP members have already joined BJP. Although Chaudhary had joined BSP before the 2017 UP poll, his Vidhan Parishad membership had continued under SP affiliation.

Earlier, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had issued the schedule of polling to fill five of these vacant Vidhan Parishad seats.

Tomorrow is the last day of filing nominations for four Vidhan Parishad seats (since the notification for one Upper House seat was issued a couple of days after it was issued for four seats).

The scrutiny of nominations would occur on September 6, while nominations could be withdrawn by September 8. Polling would take place on September 15 and counting of votes the same evening and results announced.

Since, BJP enjoys a brute majority in UP Vidhan Sabha, 325 out of total 403 seats, the victory of all its candidates is a foregone conclusion.

Meanwhile, Yogi would have to resign as the Gorakhpur MP and it would be keenly watched as to who steps in his shoes, since he had for the fifth consecutive time represented this eastern UP constituency in Parliament and had become synonymous with it.