The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged four Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council seats, and the Opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) won one, even as the counting for the six remaining seats continued on Wednesday. The BJP was leading in the Gorakhpur Teacher and Agra Graduate seats. The SP was ahead in the Varanasi Graduate, Agra Teacher, Lucknow Graduate and Jhansi Graduate seats.
If this trend continues, it will be a major gain for the SP, which won three of the 11 seats in 2020.
A legislative council functions like the Rajya Sabha in the lawmaking process. Electorates consisting of people with at least three years of teaching experience in a state at the level of secondary school and above choose one-12th candidates. The governor nominates the rest from people with expertise in areas like literature, science, and social service.
The Congress-SP alliance won 43 of the 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh and polled 43.52% of the votes in the 2024 polls. The BJP’s seats fell from 62 in 2019 to 33, dropping its overall tally below the majority mark in Parliament for the first time since 2014. Tripathi said Independent candidate Rajeev Yadav was ahead by about 450 votes, but suddenly votes started coming entirely in favour of the BJP candidate one-sidedly. Bicameral legislatures were set up under the Government of India Act of 1935. Only those aged over 30 are eligible to contest legislative council polls, while the age limit for Lok Sabha and assembly poll nominees is 25.
“Suddenly, the entire trend changed, and it felt like everything was pre-decided from before, so we boycotted the counting,” he said.
