LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said it is important for the BJP to win the 36 state legislative council seats, for which elections are being held, to advance his government's growth agenda without any hurdles in the state.
Adityanath stressed the importance of winning sufficient council seats, accusing the Samajwadi Party of hindering his last government's developmental agenda for the state after the 2017 assembly polls when the Opposition had a majority in the state's council.
"When the BJP formed the government in UP in 2017, the SP was in majority in the legislative council and it put hurdles in every development work in the state," the chief minister alleged while digitally addressing a meeting of village heads of various gram panchayats and ward members of urban civic bodies.
"At that time, we somehow managed to get welfare schemes for different sections of the society passed in the House. But today, the BJP is heading towards a majority in the UP legislative council," the chief minister said.
Exuding the confidence of winning a maximum number of the council seats, Adityanath said, "Of the 36 seats going to polls, the BJP has already won nine unopposed."
"And if the BJP wins all 36 seats, you can assume that the BJP will have a two-third majority in the UP legislative council and the BJP will have no problems in taking forward the development schemes expeditiously," he said.
Pointing out that there are 58,000 village panchayats in UP, the chief minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made them the "axis of development" after assuming power in 2014 in the Centre.
After becoming the prime minister in 2014, Modi has made panchayats the axis of development.
The UP government has started a healthy trend of establishing 'smart village' which will have all the facilities, including optical fibre and wi-fi facilities, he said.
After a landslide victory in the state assembly polls, the BJP is eying to win the majority of 36 poll-bound seats in the legislative council for which the biennial election will be held on April 9.
The 36 seats are spread across 35 local authorities' constituencies, where polls were earlier planned on two different dates, but it will be conducted together on April 9 now.
The counting of votes will be taken up on April 12.
The voters in these elections are the village heads, members and chairmen of block development councils and zila panchayats and corporators of urban civic bodies besides MLAs and MPs.
In the 100-member UP legislative council, the BJP has 35 MLCs now with SP having 17 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) four.
The Congress, the Apna Dal (Sonelal) and the NISHAD party have one member each.
The Teachers' group has two MLCs, while the Independent group (Nirdal Samooh) and independents have one MLC each.
As many as 37 seats are vacant at present, but the polls will be held for 36 seats only as the 37th seat fell vacant after the announcement of the poll schedule.
The 37th seat fell vaccant after the death of the council's leader of the opposition, Ahmad Hassan.
The term of the other 36 members ended on March 7.
For the BJP, which came back to power in Uttar Pradesh with a two-third majority in the recent assembly polls, it would be an opportunity to emerge as the single-largest party in the legislative council and enjoy a majority in both houses of the state legislature.