Amit Shah (File) Another bout of a battle between the ruling BJP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) is in the offing as 36 seats of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council go to polls on April 9 — the filing of nominations began on Tuesday.
The SP, which has been reduced to 17 seats after the term of 36 members got over, had an upper hand in the 100-member Legislative Council with 48 seats. At present, the BJP has 35 seats, Bahujan Samaj Party four. Congress, Apna Dal and Nishad Party have one seat each. There are two Independents and two non-political teachers’ groups. Though the death of SP council member Ahmed Hassan has vacated one more seat (37th), only 36 are going to the polls.
These 36 seats will be filled by the candidates elected by local bodies; thus, bringing close rivals in the state — the BJP and the SP — face to face once again after the recently-concluded Assembly polls. As the nomination has already started, both these parties are leaving no stone unturned to win this battle. While SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has taken the command in his hand, the BJP has entrusted the responsibility to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Both are pushing hard to make the most out of it for a majority in the Upper House.
According to sources, the SP chief had on Monday held a daylong deliberation with his party leaders, strategising the road map leading to their victory.
The 35 constituencies (for 36 candidates) — referred to as ‘Local Authority Constituencies’ — that are going to polls include Moradabad-Bijnor, Rampur-Bareilly, Badaun, Pilibhit-Shahjahanpur, Hardoi, Kehri, Sitapur, Lucknow-Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, Sultanpur, Barabanki, Bahraich, Azamgarh, Mau, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Varanasi, Mirzapur-Sonbhadra, Allahabad, Banda-Hamirpur, Jhansi-Jalaun-Lalitpur, Kanpur-Fatehpur, Etawah-Farrukhabad, Agra-Firozabad, Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri (two candidates), Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Meerut-Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar-Saharanpur, Gonda, Faizabad, Basti-Sidharthanagar, Gorakhpur-Mahrajganj, Deoria and Ballia.
Notably, according to the February 4 notification, the first phase of polling was scheduled for 29 seats, but following the requests of political parties to shift the polling after the Assembly polls, the Election Commission had postponed the Council polls.
According to the new schedule announced on March 6, the last date for filing nomination (started on Tuesday) is March 19, and the last date for the withdrawal of candidature is March 23. The polling will take place on April 9 when gram pradhans, members of kshetra panchayats, zila panchayats, municipal corporations and municipal boards will cast their vote.
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