BJP nominees file papers for UP Legislative Council polls

The BJP has named Vijay Bahadur Pathak, Mahendra Singh, Vidya Sagar Sonkar, Mohsin Raza, Sarojini Agarwal, Ashok Kataria, Yashwant Singh, Ashok Dhawan, Jaiveer Singh and Buqqal Nawaab as its candidates for elections to the upper House of the state assembly.

One seat has been given to Ashish Singh, president of Apna Dal.

Earlier, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath drove to the party headquarters and greeted the candidates. BJP state unit chief Mahendra Nath Pandey also wished them success.

While two candidates of the party are ministers in the state government and five others party office-bearers, the BJP has also given tickets to Jaiveer Singh who was formerly with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and to Sarojini Agarwal and Buqqal Nawab, formerly Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders.

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Voting for the 13 seats of the 100-member upper House will be held on April 26.

The SP has named its state unit chief Naresh Uttam for the polls while the BSP has fielded B.R. Ambedkar, who unsuccessfully contested the Rajya Sabha biennial polls last month. The SP has assured the BSP candidate of its surplus votes.

The tenure of 12 MLCs, including former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is coming to an end on May 5. One seat is vacant because of the resignation of former minister Ambika Chowdhary, who joined the BSP from the SP ahead of the state assembly polls in 2017.

Of the 100 seats in the Council, there are 38 seats for which MLAs cast their votes and for 36 more, nominations are made through the local bodies.

IANS