LUCKNOW: All 13 candidates who had filed papers for the polls to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council were declared elected unopposed on Monday.
Nine of the elected candidates were from the BJP and four from the Samajwadi Party. They included Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya and former state minister Swami Prasad Maurya, who had quit the BJP and joined the Samajwadi Party ahead of the UP Assembly polls.
Returning Officer and Special Secretary to the Legislative Assembly, B B Dubey, gave information in this regard here. The announcement was made soon after the time for the withdrawal of nominations on 13 seats came to an end.
The other BJP candidates declared elected unopposed were Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh, Dayashankar Mishra Dayalu, J P S Rathore, Jaswant Saini, Danish Azad Ansari, Banwari Lal Dohre, Mukesh Sharma and Narendra Kashyap.
Besides Swami Prasad Maurya, Samajwadi Party's Jasmir Ansari, Mukul Yadav and Shahnawaz Khan made it to the Legislative Council.
Barring Mukesh Sharma and Banwari Lal Dohre, all other BJP candidates are ministers in the state government.
Keshav Prasad Maurya was required to be elected to either House of the state Assembly to continue as the state deputy chief minister. He had earlier this year lost the Assembly polls from Sirathu.
The tenure of Maurya and Panchayati Raj Minister Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh as members of the Legislative Council was to end on July 6.