UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath with party leaders in Lucknow after results came in on Tuesday. (PTI) Coming close on the heels of the BJP’s victory in the UP Assembly elections, the party on Tuesday swept the biennial elections to the state Legislative Council polls, winning 33 of the 36 seats, while the main opposition, Samajwadi Party, drew a blank. The BJP had won nine of the 36 seats unopposed.
The ruling party now has a majority in the 100-member Upper House with 68 members.
The party, however, faced defeat in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the BJP candidate, Sudama Patel, came third with 170 votes. The seat was won by jailed don Brijesh Singh’s wife, Annapurna Singh, who secured 4,234 votes and defeated SP candidate Umesh Yadav by close to 4,000 votes.
Personal triumph
The resounding win in the MLC polls indicates a personal triumph for CM Yogi Adityanath, who was given a free hand in this election. Yogi had handpicked a majority of the BJP candidates. Even in the three seats where the BJP lost, the winners are considered close to the ruling party.
In the other two seats where the BJP faced defeat, it lost to Independent candidate Vikrant Singh ‘Rishu’ in Azamgarh-Mau, and to little-known Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) of strongman Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya in Pratapgarh.
Congratulating the winners and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “This win is once again the expression of the public’s trust in the BJP’s development model.”
Meanwhile, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav alleged rigging in the polls and added that history will not forgive the BJP. “The BJP’s arbitrariness and rigging crossed all limits in the Legislative Council polls and history will never forgive it for what it has done to crush democracy… The BJP has no faith in Constitution…” he said.
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