UP MLC Election Results Updates: People With Nationalism, Says Yogi as BJP Sweeps Polls; Key Varanasi Seat Lost to Independent Candidate

UP MLC Election Results Updates: The ruling BJP is headed for a big win in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council polls, bagging Barabanki and Ayodhya and leading in several other places. But it lost Varanasi to an Independent candidate. Biennial elections on 36 seats of the Upper House were held in Uttar Pradesh. On nine seats, the BJP nominees won unopposed while voting took place on the remaining 27 seats on April 9.

In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency, BJP’s Sudama Patel stood at a distant third with just 170 votes as Independent candidate Annapurna Singh secured a resounding victory with 4,234 votes, followed by Samajwadi Party’s Umesh Yadav, who received 345 votes, Varanasi District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said.

LATEST UPDATES ON THE COUNTING:

❑ Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the BJP’s thumping victory in the MLC polls had “again made it clear that the people of the state are with nationalism, development and good governance under the able guidance and leadership of the respected Prime Minister.”

❑ In the elections held on April 9 for 36 MLC seats, BJP has a lead on 33 seats, while its candidates have won in many seats. The Samajwadi Party is yet to open its account, meanwhile two independent candidates have also won from Azamgarh and Varanasi each. The Jansatta Dal Loktantrik candidate Akshay Pratap Singh has won from Pratapgarh seat.

❑ Significantly, the BJP candidates have already won from 9 seats unopposed. Polling for 27 seats was held on 9 April. In the counting of votes being held on Tuesday, BJP has won or is leading in 24 out of 27 seats. Independents have won or are leading in three seats. The account of Samajwadi Party has not yet been opened. Even in Azamgarh which is said to be SP’s stronghold, the party is at third spot. Yashwant Singh’s son Vikrant Singh Rishu, who was expelled from the BJP from here, has won as an independent candidate.

❑ With the victory on 33 seats, the BJP will get a majority in the upper house. At present, out of 100 BJP had 35 MLCs. With the victory of 33 MLCs, this number has increased to 68, which is much more than the majority figure of 51. The Samajwadi Party currently has 17 MLCs.

❑ The candidates which have won so far in the MLC elections include, independent candidate Vikrant Singh Rishu from Azamgarh, while BJP candidates Vishal Singh Chanchal from Ghazipur, Subhash Yaduvansh from Basti, Vandana Verma from Saharanpur, Dharmendra Bhardwaj from Meerut-Ghaziabad, Pawan Singh Chauhan from Sitapur and Hari Om Pandey from Ayodhya.

❑ Annapurna Singh, wife of jailed don Brijesh Singh, has won from Varanasi seat as an independent candidate. Apart from this, Vijay Shivhare of BJP from Agra-Firozabad seat and CP Chand of BJP from Gorakhpur, Pragya Tiwari of BJP from Bahraich, Brijesh Singh Prinshu of BJP from Jaunpur, Dinesh Pratap Singh of BJP from Rae Bareli, Ramchandra Pradhan of BJP from Lucknow, Angad Kumar Singh of BJP from Barabanki, Avinash Singh Chouhan of BJP from Fatehpur-Kanpur, Awadhesh Kumar of BJP from Gonda, Shailendra Singh of BJP from Sultanpur, Ravi Shankar Singh of BJP from Ballia, Pranshu Dutt Dwivedi of BJP from Farrukhabad, Rama Niranjan of BJP from Jhansi-Jalaun-Lalitpur seat and Dr. Ratan Pal Singh of BJP has won from Deoria.

❑ From Pratapgarh, the Jansatta Dal candidate Akshay Pratap alias Gopal has won the election. Akshay got a total of 1,691 votes, and the BJP candidate got 600 votes. Becoming an MLC for the fifth time, Akshay Pratap is the relative of Kunda MLA Raghuraj Pratap alias Raja Bhaiya. He defeated his nearest rival BJP candidate Haripratap Singh by a huge margin.

❑ In Varanasi, independent candidate Annapurna Singh has won with a huge margin, receiving 4,230 votes.

❑ BJP candidate Subhash Yaduvansh has won the election in Basti with a margin of 4,280 votes. SP’s Sunny Yadav got only 887 votes.

❑ BJP’s Ravi Shankar Singh ‘Pappu’ has won from Ballia. SP’s Arvind Giri was defeated by a huge margin. The BJP received 1,981 votes and SP got 278 votes.

❑ Minister Dinesh Pratap Singh scored a hat-trick from Rae Bareli, and won by huge votes.

❑ Ramchandra Pradhan of BJP won from Lucknow Unnao MLC seat with 3,487 votes.

❑ BJP has won from Jaunpur. Candidate Brijesh Singh Prinsu got 3,129 votes out of the total 3,962.

❑ “If the BJP gets a majority in both Houses, passing of bills will be easy and the government will further cement its position in the state legislature,” a senior BJP functionary was quoted as saying by news agency IANS.

❑ The BJP has made a concerted effort to win the election. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has held virtual meetings with the party’s elected representatives. He has urged MLAs, zila panchayat members, block development council members, mayors, municipal chairpersons, village pradhans, and corporators to work together to ensure the success of the BJP’s candidates.

❑ A victory for the BJP would close in heels to a big consecutive win in assembly polls, and it will also give the saffron party a two-third majority in the upper house. The results can add more clout to Yogi’s leadership, political experts said. Unlike the assembly polls, that also saw a big intervention from the central leadership, the council polls had been largely a ‘Yogi affair’, they said.

❑ Nine MLCs from eight local authorities’ constituencies have been elected unopposed. Budaun, Hardoi, Kheri, Mirzapur-Sonbhadra, Banda-Hamirpur, Aligarh, Bulandshahr, and Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri are among the seats.

❑ There were 95 candidates in the fray and polling was held at 739 centres, according to the Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer. As many as 1,20,657 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise.

❑ The BJP members were elected unopposed in nine seats — eight local authorities’ constituencies — Budaun, Hardoi, Kheri, Mirzapur-Sonbhadra, Banda-Hamirpur, Aligarh, Bulandshahr and Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri and the Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri local authorities’ constituency. In the 100-member Legislative Council, the BJP currently has 34 MLCs, the SP 17 and the Bahujan Samaj Party four. The Congress, the Apna Dal (Sonelal) and the 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.

❑ Currently, 38 seats are vacant. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath vacated his council seat recently, while former leader of opposition Ahmad Hassan of the SP died in February.

The voters in this biennial election are village pradhans, members and chairman of block development councils and zila panchayats, and corporators in urban areas. MLAs and MPs also vote.

❑ The Congress and the BSP did not field any candidate in the Legislative Council elections, making it a direct fight between the BJP and the SP, the principal opposition in the state assembly.

❑ Of the 36 BJP candidates, five are former SP leaders, who joined the saffron party ahead of the Assembly polls.

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