UP MLC Elections 2022: Voting in 36 seats today; BJP eyes clean sweep, wins nine seats unopposed

UP Legislative Council Election 2022, UP MLC Elections 2022: The voting for the Legislative Council elections in Uttar Pradesh is being held today. After a thumping victory in the Assembly polls, the BJP now eyes to emerge as the single largest party in the state Upper House by winning majority of the 36 seats going to polls. It has already won nine of them unanimously. The results for the remaining 27 seats will be announced on April 12. These polls were earlier scheduled to be held on two different dates, but are now being held together.

Ninety-five candidates are in the fray. Voting will take place from 8 am to 4 pm at 739 polling centres with 1,20,657 voters expected to exercise their franchise, the chief electoral officer of Uttar Pradesh said.

The voters in this biennial election are village pradhans, members and chairman of block development councils, members and chairman of Zila panchayat, and corporators in urban areas. MLAs and MPs are also voters in this poll. Adityanath, an MLA from Gorakhpur Urban, will cast his vote in Gorakhpur on Saturday at the polling booth in the municipal corporation, official sources said.

Nine MLCs from eight local authorities’ constituencies have been elected unopposed. These seats are Budaun, Hardoi, Kheri, Mirzapur-Sonbhadra, Banda-Hamirpur, Aligarh, Bulandshahr and Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri. Two MLCs were elected unopposed from Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri local authorities’ constituency, while from the rest of the constituencies, one MLC each was elected unopposed.

In the 100-member Legislative Council, the BJP has 34 MLCs, the Samajwadi Party 17 and the Bahujan Samaj Party four. The Congress, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and NISHAD party have one member each in the House. 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.

The Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party have not fielded any candidate in the legislative council polls, making it a straight fight between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party, the principal opposition in the state Assembly. Some independent candidates are also in the fray.