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. If this trend continues, it will be a major gain for the SP, which won three of the 11 seats in 2020. 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.
In 2020, the BJP won six of these 11 seats, and independents won two. The elections for the 11 seats were held on Friday, months before the assembly polls due in Uttar Pradesh next year. The BJP hopes to return to power in the state for a third time after the 2024 Lok Sabha election setback. 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. 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.
A BJP-SP clash in Agra and an Opposition boycott over alleged irregularities in Gorakhpur marred the counting process. The process has been slow as ballot papers were sorted and bundled before counting under the single transferable vote system. Not every adult citizen is eligible to vote in legislative council polls and only six states, the other two being including Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, have a bicameral legislatures. A legislative council functions like the Rajya Sabha in the lawmaking process. The legislative council polls are not fought on party symbols, but political parties back candidates. They are held through proportional representation with a transferable vote. Electors list an order of preference and choose from a list of candidates.
The counting began at 8am on Tuesday in Lucknow, Varanasi, Agra, Meerut, Jhansi, Bareilly and Gorakhpur.
