Lucknow: The ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has won both the seats in the by-elections of Uttar Pradesh legislative council. The votes for these seats were polled on Monday and counting completed late in the evening. BJP candidates Padamsen Choudhury and Mavendra Singh easily secured victory while Samajwadi Party candidates Ram Jatan Rajbhar and Ramkaran Nirmal faced defeat. Padam Sen Choudhury secured 279 votes while Manvendra Singh got 280 votes. SP candidate Choudhury and Nirmal secured 116 and 115 votes respectively. All the nine Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) legislators voted for the SP candidate while 12 Apna Dal MLAS for the BJP.
Suheldeo Rajbhar Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) which had contested assembly polls in alliance with SP voted in favour of BJP candidates. The SBSP Chief Om Prakash Rajbhar came to vote with Deputy Chief Minister Brijesh Pathak and left the polling hall with him only. When asked, he said that it’s a secret ballot. However, his party legislators gave support to BJP candidates. One legislator from Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and two from Congress did not cast their votes. The two legislators of Raja Bhaiyya’s Jansatta Dal voted for the BJP candidates.
These people could not vote
Two SP MLAs Irfan Solanki and Ramakant Yadav could not vote as both were lodged in jail. Another SP legislator Manoj Paras did not turn up due to illness. Abbas Ansari of SBSP also did not vote as he was lodged in jail.
A total of 396 votes were polled among 403 legislators. The Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was among the first ones to cast his vote at 9 AM while SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav turned up in the afternoon.
Both these seats in the legislative council had fallen vacant after the death of BJP member Banwari Lal and elevation of Laxman Acharya to the post of Governor.
