UP 2022 MLC Elections: BJP Wins 33 Of The 36 Seats, Secures Majority In Both Houses After 40 Years

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party BJP), on Tuesday (12 April) made a clean sweep in the UP 2022 Uttar Pradesh legislative council elections. The lead opposition party, i.e. the Samajwadi Party (SP) failed to register its victory even in a single seat.

As the BJP emerged as the single largest party in these elections, the party now has absolute majority in both houses of the UP Vidhan Sabha.

“Today, BJP's thumping victory in the MLC elections of Uttar Pradesh has again made it clear that the people of the state, under the able guidance and leadership of the respected Prime Minister, are with nationalism, development and good governance,” tweeted UP Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath.

“Hearty congratulations and best wishes to all the newly elected members of the Upper House of Uttar Pradesh!”, said CM Adityanath in another tweet.

UP Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak also thanked the public for ensuring BJP’s thumping majority in the council elections. He said that as the BJP has come after over four decades with a majority in both the Assembly and the Council, this is indeed a huge victory and an immense blessing from the people of the state.

BJP Wins 33 of 36 Seats

A total of 95 candidates were contesting on 27 MLC (Member of Legislative Council) seats in these elections. Interestingly, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BJP) and the Congress have not fielded any candidates in these elections.

Initially, it was being said that there would be a close contest between the SP and the BJP in the 27 seats where results were to be announced today. But as soon as the early trends came, it became apparent that the BJP was likely to win most of the seats. Notably, the trends changed into expected results, and the SP even failed to open its account.

Before these elections, there were 36 vacant seats in the 100-member council. Out of these 36 seats, the ruling BJP had already won nine MLC seats from eight local authorities’ constituencies namely Badaun, Hardoi, Kheri, Aligarh, Bulandshahr, Mathura-Etah-Mainpuri, Mirzapur-Sonbhadra and Banda-Hamirpur, unopposed.

From the Deoria-Kushinagar seat, SP candidate Dr Kafeel Khan has lost to BJP’s Dr Ratanpal Singh of BJP. After the defeat, the SP candidate has alleged that the BJP has bought its votes with money, and the police administration coerced the Gram Pradhans and the BDC members to vote for the ruling party. “This is the defeat of democracy, no one has won,” Khan exclaimed.

Prior to these elections, the BJP had 35 MLCs in the 100-member Council, and the 33 new seats takes its tally to 68 seats, giving it an absolute majority in the upper house of the UP Legislative Council.

Now, the SP has 17 members, the BSP has four, and the Congress, Jansatta Dal Loktantrik (JD-L) and BJP allies Apna Dal (S) and Nishad Party each have one. Two members are members of the non-political teachers’ group, and four are independent.

The three seats not won by the BJP: Varanasi, Pratapgarh And Azamgarh

The BJP candidate finished third in the Varanasi seat. Here, jailed don Brajesh Singh’s wife Annapurna Singh, an independent candidate, secured a total of 4,234 votes, followed by SP’s Umesh Yadav with 345 votes, and BJP’s Sudama Patel, who got 170 votes only. According to many UP-watchers, Annapurna Singh was supported indirectly by the BJP itself.

In the Pratapgarh seat, Kunda MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya’s party (Jansatta Dal Loktantrik) candidate Akshay Pratap Singh has defeated his nearest rival Hari Pratap Singh of the BJP.

The third seat where the BJP had to face defeat was the Azamgarh MLC seat, where rebel BJP MLC Yashwant Singh had fielded his son Vikrant Singh as an independent. Here, BJP has fielded Ramakant Yadav's son Arunkant Yadav, while SP again played a bet on Rakesh Yadav. Though the BJP expelled Yashwant Singh from the party for six years, he still managed to ensure his son’s victory.