EC releases schedule of UP Legislative Council by-polls

Lucknow: The Election Commission on Thursday released the schedule for the by-polls for four vacancies in the Legislative Council of Uttar Pradesh. The vacancies have arisen following the resignation of four Samajwadi Party (SP) legislators -- Buqqal Nawab, Yashwant Singh, Sarojini Agarwal and Ashok Bajpai.

The term of Nawab and Singh was to end in 2022 and that of Agarwal and Bajpai in 2021. However, they quit all of a sudden this month. Sarojini Agarwal, Ashok Bajpai and Buqqal Nawab have since joined the BJP.

According to the schedule released by the poll panel, the notification for by-polls to the four seats will be issued on August 29, the last date of filing nominations is September 5, the scrutiny of the nominations would be done the next day and the last date of withdrawal of candidature is September 8, 2017.

Polling will be held on September 15 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Counting of votes will be done on the same day starting at 5 p.m., Under Secretary with the poll panel Suman Kumar Das said.

The poll process will be completed before September 18, Das added.

While no names have yet been declared by any party for the by-polls, speculation is rife in political circles that the four seats would be used to send Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma to the state assembly, a constitutional obligation they have to fulfil within six months of assuming office.

Two other members of the BJP ministry in Uttar Pradesh -- Swatantra Dev Singh and Mohsin Raza -- are not members of either House of the state assembly.