UP minister elected to legislative council; BJP wins all five seats

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh minister of state Mohsin Raza was today declared elected unopposed to the state Legislative Council.

With this, all the five Legislative Council seats, for which the by polls were held, went to the saffron party.

"Minister of state Mohsin Raza has been declared elected unopposed to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council," Principal Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Pradeep Dubey, who was also the returning officer for the by polls, told PTI.

Currently, Raza is the minister of state for science and technology, electronics, information technology, Muslim Waqf and Haj.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, his two deputies and a minister were, on September 8, declared elected unopposed to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

With all the five seats, which went to the by polls, going to the BJP, the saffron party's tally rose to 13 in the 100- member Legislative Council, where the opposition still enjoys a majority.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) has 61 members in the Legislative Council, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) nine, Congress two and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) one. While 12 seats are held by "others", two are vacant.

Adityanath had taken over as the chief minister of the state on March 19. He, along with the four other ministers, contested the by polls to become a legislator within the stipulated time-frame of six months since assuming office.