Uttar Pradesh gears up for another electoral battle on April 26 in form of Council poll

Of the 13 seats falling vacant, seven belong to the SP, two each to BJP and BSP and one to RLD.

A file photo of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha in Lucknow . (File | PTI)

LUCKNOW: Just 10 days after the fierce battle for Rajya Sabha, Election Commission of India announced the dates for 13 UP Council seats falling vacant on May 5, the voting for which will take place on April 26. The commission will notify the Council elections on April 9 and the last date of filing nomination will be April 16.

Of the 13 seats falling vacant, seven belong to the SP, two each to BJP and BSP and one to RLD. Prominent among those retiring from the upper house of state legislature include SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Minority Affairs minister Mohsin Raza and Rural Development Minister Mahendra Singh.

Given the strength of UP assembly -402 –each candidate will require 29 votes to secure a place in Council. While BJP-led NDA has 324 of 402 MLAs, SP has just 46 MLAs with Nitin Agarwal having defected to BJP camp. With this arithmetic, the fate of 12 seats is pre-decided as the BJP can win 11 seats comfortable with five votes to spare. The SP, with 46 MLAs on the other hand, can comfortably win one seat with 17 votes to spare.

Again one seat – 13th--will be left open for the fight for which SP and BSP can come together to field a joint candidate. The BSP, which has 18 MLAs (as its MLA Anil Singh had cross-voted in BJP’s favour in RS polls) cannot win a single seat on its own.

As SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, after failing to fulfil RS commitment to ally BSP, had promised the blue brigade of reciprocating Gorakhpur and Phulpur support in Council elections by ensuring victory of one BSP candidate on 13th seat, BSP may field Bhimrao Ambedkar yet again for council after he lost to BJP nominee in Rajya Sabha polls last month.

Ambedkar is likely to get the support of 7 Congress MLAs and 17 spare SP MLAs to sail through comfortably.

As per the current configuration of UP Council, Samajwadi Party enjoys a majority with 61 of 100 members. However, on May 5 their number will be reduced by seven to 54 and BSP, which has nine members at the moment, will come down to seven with the retirement of two of its members.

The ruling BJP which has 13 legislators in the upper house, including Chief minister Adityanath Yogi and the two deputy CMs -- Keshav Maurya and Dinesh Sharma -- will come down to 11 after the retirement of Raza and Dr Mahendra Singh. But the party will be able to give a jack of 11 seats taking its tally to 22.

The RLD, which had just one MLA in the assembly and he was also expelled from the party after he cross-voted for BJP candidate in Rajya Sabha polls, will be wiped out completely from the upper house with the retirement of its lone MLC Chaudhary Mushtaq.

However, under the given scenario, if BJP fields a candidate over and above 11 which it can win comfortably, it would be left with just five spare votes and would require the support of 24 MLAs. So the party may not go for another tussle and let all the candidates to get elected unopposed.

Existing tally in Vidhan Parishad: