UP Legislative Council polls: BJP candidates to file papers on January 18

All BJP candidates for the biennial polls to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council will file their nomination papers on Monday in the presence of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the party said in a statement on Sunday.

The party candidates include state BJP chief Swatantra Dev Singh and Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma.

Monday is the last day for the filing of nominations for 12 legislative council seats, which will fall vacant on January 30.

The scrutiny of papers will be held on January 19 and names can be withdrawn till January 21.

The polling is scheduled to take place on January 28 and the counting will be done an hour after the completion of the polls.

On Friday, former IAS officer AK Sharma was named a BJP candidate, a day after he joined the party, fuelling speculations that he may get a ministerial post soon.

Sharma in a tweet thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, national BJP president J P Nadda and UP CM Yogi Adityanath for it.

Sharma, who has long been one of the trusted bureaucrats of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since his tenure as the Gujarat chief minister, joined the BJP on Thursday, days after he opted for voluntary retirement from service.

Besides Sharma, the BJP named Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, its state unit president Swatantra Dev Singh and Lakshman Prasad Acharya as candidates for the polls.

The other BJP candidates are Kunwar Manvendra Singh, Govind Narayan Shukla, Salil Bishnoi, Ashwani Tyagi, Dharamveer Prajapati and Surendra Chaudhary.

The BJP has already asserted that it will win 10 out of 12 seats. In the 403-member UP Legislative Assembly, the BJP has 310 MLAs, SP 49, BSP 18, Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 9, Congress 7 and the SBSP 4.

There are three Independent MLAs while the RLD and the Nishad Party have one MLA each.

UP BJP general secretary JPS Rathore said his party can easily win 10 of the 12 seats.

Of the 12 MLCs whose tenure is expiring, six are from the Samajwadi Party (SP)--Ramesh Yadav, Ahmed Hasan, Ashu Malik, Sahab Singh Saini, Ramjatan Rajbhar and Virendra Singh.

Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, Swatantra Dev Singh and Laxman Acharya are from the BJP. The tenure of BSP's Pradeep Jatav and Dharamveer Ashok is also coming to an end. The term of Naseemudin Siddiqui, who left the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and joined the Congress, is also coming to an end.

The poll panel had earlier issued guidelines to be followed during the entire election process. These guidelines state that every person shall wear a face mask during all election-related activities.

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.

Social distancing shall be maintained as per the COVID-19 guidelines of the state government and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh has been directed to depute a senior officer from the state to ensure that the instructions regarding COVID-19 containment measures are complied with while making arrangements for conducting the elections, the Election Commission added.