The ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh sailed comfortably in the legislative council bypolls held on Monday with both its candidates defeating the Samajwadi Party nominees. Bypolls to the two seats were necessitated following the resignation of Laxman Acharya and the death of Banwari Lal Dohre. The tenure of Acharya, who was made the governor of Sikkim, was to last till January 2027 while Dohre's term was to expire in July 2028.


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Returning officer of the election Mohd Mushahid told PTI that BJP's Manvendra Singh bagged 280 votes while his rival from the Samajwadi Party, Ram Jatan Rajbhar, got 115 votes. The BJP's other candidate, Padmasen Chowdhary, got 279 votes in the bypolls while Samajwadi Party's Ramkaran got 116, Mushahid said, adding that one vote each was disqualified.


The voters had to indicate their preference using numbers one (first preference) and two (second preference) in the secret ballot, the returning officer said. Asked about the disqualification of votes, Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said, "We will look into the matter." Uttar Pradesh minister JPS Rathore told PTI, "One of our candidates got six votes more than our strength while the other got five votes more."


The BJP has 255 MLAs in the 403-member assembly while its allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 and the NISHAD Party six. These bypoll results come close on the heels of the BJP sweeping all the mayoral seats in the urban local bodies elections held in the state. The opposition unity suffered a blow in the MLC bypolls with Congress legislators not casting their votes while the lone BSP MLA could not make it to Lucknow to exercise his voting rights.
BSP legislator Uma Shankar Singh said, "I could not reach the polling centre on time to vote in the bypoll."


After the results were announced, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in a tweet in Hindi, said, "Hearty congratulations to the candidates of the double-engine government Padamsen Chowdhary and Manvendra Singh for the victory in the bypolls for the post of members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council!"


"We have full faith that following the vision of the respected prime minister, the public conduct, hard work and experience of both the victorious respected members will be helpful in achieving the resolution of 'self-reliant Uttar Pradesh'," he said. As many as 396 MLAs cast their votes in the bypoll on Monday for which the ruling BJP and the opposition Samajwadi Party had fielded candidates.


According to UP Assembly sources, seven MLAs, including two from the Congress, did not vote in the bypoll. "The seven MLAs who could not cast their votes included three jailed legislators -- Abbas Ansari (Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party), Irfan Solanki and Ramakant Yadav (both from Samajwadi Party). Besides, two Congress MLAs, one BSP and one SP MLA (Manoj Paras) did not cast their votes," a source told PTI.


Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Brijlal Khabri said, "A decision was taken by the party not to vote for any of the candidates in the MLC bypoll." The two Congress MLAs who did not vote are Aradhana Mishra and Virendra Chaudhary. "Those who were contesting the bypolls or those who are fielding the candidates should have at least spoken to us. When you are not asking us, why should we take the forward step?" said Chaudhary.


An Assembly Secretariat official said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Finance Minister Suresh Khanna were among those who cast their votes in the morning. As polling was going on, SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar was seen walking with Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak. Samajwadi Party chief and Leader of Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly Akhilesh Yadav alleged that many of his party MLAs were contacted for the MLC bypolls and meetings were held with them.