BJP suffers loss of face in UP Council polls

In a loss of face to BJP, its extra candidate in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections today lost while ruling SP and opposition BSP won an additional seat each with support from Congress and other parties.
Polling was held for 12 seats and SP won eight, BSP three and BJP one, Principal Secretary, Legislative Council, Pradeep Dubey said.
The elected SP candidates were Ahmad Hasan, Ramesh Yadav, Ramjatan Rajbhar, Sahab Singh Saini, Ashok Bajpai, Virendra Singh Gurjar, Sarojini Agarwal and Ashu Malik.
Hasan is Health Minister and also Leader of the House in the Legislative Council.
BSP nominees who won are Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Dharmveer Ashok and Pradeep.

The BJP candidate who could make it to the portals of the Upper House was Lakshman Acharya, while the second candidate Dayashankar Singh had to bite the dust.
The state Assembly has 403 members and first preference votes of 31 MLAs were needed to ensure victory of one candidate for the Upper House.
Among the 12 retiring members whose term will come to an end on January 30, seven are from BSP, three from SP and two from BJP.