BJP declares names of 6 more candidates for UP Legislative Council polls

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The BJP on Monday announced the names of six more candidates for the biennial Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections scheduled to take place on April 9. The party had earlier announced 30 candidates for the biennial polls.

Subhash Yaduvansh has been fielded from Basti-Siddharthnagar local authority constituency, Avinash Singh Chauhan from Kanpur-Fatehpur, Vineet Singh from Mirzapur-Sonbhadra, Shailendra Pratap Singh from Sultanpur, Sudama Singh Patel from Varanasi and Brajesh Singh Pranshu has been fielded from Jaunpur, according to the list released by the party's national general secretary Arun Singh. 

Yaduvansh is a secretary in the UP BJP and has been a former state president of BJP Yuva Morcha, while Chauhan and Patel are also associated with the party's organization. Vineet Singh who has been fielded from Mirzapur-Sonbhadra has been MLC in the past but was defeated in 2016.  Shailendra

Pratap Singh, who won from the SP in Sultanpur, had joined the BJP some time back. while Brajesh Singh of Jaunpur won as an independent last time.

The polling for the 36 seats will be held on April 9 and the last date of nomination is March 21. The counting will be held on Apr 12. According to the official website of the UP Vidhan Sabha, the BJP has 35 MLCs, SP 17 and the BSP four at present in the 100-member UP legislative council.

The Congress, Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad party have one member each. The Teachers' group has two MLCs while the "Independent Group" ('Nirdal Samooh') and independents have one MLC each. The UP Vidhan Sabha's 36 seats fell vacant on March 7 after the expiry of terms of its members while the 37th seat fell vacant following the death of the Leader of Opposition Ahmad Hassan of the Samajwadi Party, after prolonged illness.
For the 36 seats falling vacant on March 7, the Election Commission had issued the notification on January 28 for the polls to be held earlier. 

It, however, had to be deferred due to the state assembly polls. In the recent UP assembly elections, the BJP had won 255 seats while its allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) and Nishad party won 12 and six seats respectively. The Samajwadi Party won 111 seats while its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal won eight. The SBSP, another SP ally, won six seats. The Congress won two seats and the BSP one seat. 

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