Yogi may take council route to UP house

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who resigned from the Lok Sabha on Saturday, is likely to take the council route to the house rather than contesting the assembly by-poll.  

According to the sources in the state BJP here, Adityanath could get elected to the state legislative council on one of the seats vacated by the Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP MLCs recently.

Currently five BJP ministers, including Adityanath and the two deputy chief ministers Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya, were neither member of the vidhan sabha nor the council. They must become member of either of the houses by September 19. 

Sources said that Sharma and two other ministers, including Mohsin Raza and Swatantra Dev Singh, would opt for council. It is not yet clear if Maurya, who was yet to resign from the Lok Sabha, will also follow Adityanath. 

 

''Though many MLAs, including those of the opposition parties, have approached the party and expressed their willingness to vacate their seats to pave the way for Adityanath to contest the by-poll, it is better if he takes the safer council route,'' said a senior UP BJP leader.  

SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav has dared Adityanath and Maurya to contest by-polls to the assembly instead of taking the council route.  

 

''BJP is engineering defections in our rank only to ensure that Adityanath and Maurya may not have to contest the polls...they (BJP) are not not sure of a smooth sailing,'' said an SP leader, who was considered to be close to Akhilesh.  

The leader said that the saffron party did not want to take on a possible consensus candidate from the opposition parties.  

Akhilesh had also asked his MLCs, who had quit their membership and joined BJP, not ensure safe passage to the BJP ministers.  

So far three SP and one BSP member of the Uttar Pradesh legislative council have resigned from the house and joined the BJP.