Will win 11 seats in UP Legislative Council polls: BJP
What's the story
With the filing of nominations for Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council polls coming to a close tomorrow, BJP today sounded confident of bagging 11 out of 13 seats going to polls on April 26. BJP and its allies enjoy a strength of 324 in the 403 UP Assembly. Arithmetically, they're likely to win 11 out of 13 seats comfortably and might get some additional votes.
Votes
To ensure victory, a candidate needs 29 first preference votes
UP BJP vice-president JPS Rathore said that to ensure victory, a candidate needs 29 first preference votes. The notification for the Legislative Council polls was issued on April 9. The last date for filing nominations is April 16. Scrutiny of nominations will be done on April 17, while the last date for withdrawal of the candidature is April 19.
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Sure of winning 11 out of the 13 seats
"We are sure of securing the win on 11 out of the 13 seats of the Legislative Council seats going to polls," said UP BJP spokesperson Navin Srivastava.
Seats
Samajwadi Party has given up one seat to BSP
For the remaining two seats, Samajwadi Party has given up one seat to the BSP taking the newfound friendship a step forward. The SP headed by Akhilesh Yadav had fielded two candidates, but withdrew one of them, paving the way for Mayawati's party to contest one seat as a quid pro quo for her support to the SP in the Lok Sabha bye-elections.
Information
Samajwadi Party has 61 members in the UP Legislative Council
The Samajwadi Party has 61 members, the BSP nine, the Congress two, the RLD one and others 12 in UPLC. Two seats are vacant. Samajwadi Party spokesperson and MLC Sunil Singh Sajan said the SP-BSP combine will comfortably win the two legislative council seats.
Members
In the 100-member UP Legislative Council, BJP has 13 members
In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won the Phulpur parliamentary constituency for the first time. However, in the Rajya Sabha elections, it was a sweet revenge for the BJP, as it ensured victory of all its nine candidates, days after it lost two crucial seats in the Lok Sabha bypolls in the state. In the 100-member UP Legislative Council, BJP has just 13 members.
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Gave one seat to BSP to strengthen electoral understanding: Sajan
"The Samajwadi Party is contesting on one seat in the Legislative Council polls. Initially, we had decided to contest on two seats, but later we decided to give one seat to BSP to strengthen our electoral understanding," SP spokesperson and MLC Sunil Singh Sajan said.