BJP releases a list of candidates for the upcoming biennial election to 12 legislative council seats in Uttar Pradesh. (Representational image)
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released a list of candidates for the upcoming biennial election to 12 legislative council seats in Uttar Pradesh, which will fall vacant seats later this month. The party has also named national spokesperson Syed Shahnawaz Hussain its MLC candidate from Bihar.
The announcement marks Hussain's return to electoral politics, albeit to the state level, for the first time since 2014 when he lost the Lok Sabha election from Bhagalpur.
He was not given ticket in the 2019 polls. In the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, he had held the civil aviation portfolio among other charges. The party also named six more candidates for the legislative council polls in Uttar Pradesh. They are Kunwar Manvendra Singh, Govind Narayan Shukla, Salil Bishnoi, Ashwini Tyagi, Dharmveer Prajapati and Surendra Chaudhary. The win of BJP candidates in these seats is all but certain owing to the party's strength in respective state assemblies.
The Election Commission had previously announced the date for the biennial Legislative Council polls in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh, 12 seats are vacant while in Andhra Pradesh 1 seat is vacant as the election to the council will take place by the MLAs on January 28.
Election Commission guidelines for Biennial Elections
- The EC has issued guidelines to be followed during the entire election process. Every person will have to wear a face mask during all election-related activities and at the entry of hall/room/ premises used for election purposes. Thermal scanning of all persons shall be carried out and sanitiser made available at all locations.
- The EC said that social distancing will be maintained as per the extant COVID-19 guidelines of the state governments and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- "The Chief Secretaries of Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh are being directed to depute a senior officer from the states to ensure that the extant instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the election," said the EC.
- The lone seat in Andhra Pradesh has been vacant due to the resignation of Pothula Sunitha.
- In Uttar Pradesh, the term of BJP state President Swatantra Dev Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma is expiring, while the term of Samajwadi party leader Ahmed Hasan is also expiring. The election on the seat vacated after Naseemuddin Siddiqui crossed over to the Congress from BSP will also be held.
- The BJP which has a majority in the house is set to return with a majority of the seats while Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party will be losing seats in the council.
