LUCKNOW: Robust voter turnout was recorded for the elections to 27 seats of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council election on Saturday. A whopping 98.11 per cent of voters exercised their franchise sealing the fate of 95 candidates in the biennial elections.
UP CM Yogi Adityanath was among the early voters as he cast his vote in Gorakhpur in early hours as voting commenced at 8 am.
According to the Election Commission of India, Rae Bareli registered the highest voting percentage of 99.35 per cent followed by Pratapgrah at 99.25 per cent, Sitapur at 99.20 per cent and Barabanki in the same bracket with 99.16 percent.
Gorakhpur, the stronghold of UP CM Yogi Adityanath, recorded the lowest voting percentage where 96.50 per cent voters turned up to exercise their rights till the conclusion of the process at 4 pm. Gorakhpur was followed by Farrukhabad with 96.5 per cent turnout and Saharanpur with 96.69 per cent voting. State capital Lucknow recorded 98.90 percent turnout.
Of the total 36 seats of the local bodies constituencies up for grabs, ruling BJP had already bagged nine – Budaun, Hardoi, Kheri, Mirzapur-Sonbhadra, Banda-Hamirpur, Aligarh, Bulandshahr and Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri. Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri segment has two seats.
On Saturday, voting was held for constituencies including Moradabad-Bijnor, Rampur-Bareilly, Pilibhit-Shahjahanpur, Sitapur, Lucknow-Unnao, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, Sultanpur, Barabanki, Bahraich, Gonda, Faizabad, Basti-Siddharthnagar, Gorakhpur-Maharajganj, Deoria, Azamgarh-Mau, Ballia, Ghazipur, Jaunpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Jhansi-Jalaun-Lalitpur, Kanpur-Fatehpur, Etawah-Farrukhabad, Agra-Firozabad, Meerut-Ghaziabad and Muzaffarnagar-Saharanpur, across 58 districts of the state. The results will be declared after the counting of votes on April 12.
Following its resounding victory in Assembly polls, the BJP had set its eye on becoming the single-largest party in the state legislative council as well by winning a majority of the 36 seats. It is an opportunity for any ruling dispensation to achieve majority in both houses of UP legislature after 1990.
In the 100-member Legislative Council, the BJP currently has 34 MLCs, the SP 17 and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) four. The Congress, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and NISHAD party have one member each in the Upper House. The Teachers’ group and independent group have two MLC each.
