Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will contest Assembly bypoll after the presidential elections in July, rather than opt for the somewhat safer route through the State’s Legislative Council that many of his predecessors have resorted to.
Two former chief ministers — Mayawati (2007-2012) and Akhilesh Yadav (2012-2017) — chose to enter the U.P. Assembly via the Upper House that depends on indirect elections through an electoral college of MLAs and teacher constituencies, rather than direct election to the Lower House.
“He (Yogi Adityanath) will be contesting elections to the Assembly. Some party MLA will have to vacate a seat for him to contest,” a senior BJP leader told The Hindu .
As of now the most likely seat appears to be the Gorakhpur City Assembly seat, held by the Chief Minister’s close associate Radha Mohan Das Agarwal. BJP leaders, however, have not disclosed which seat Mr Adityanath would choose. .
Mr Adityanath’s deputy, Keshav Prasad Maurya, too, will have to quit his Lok Sabha seat of Phulpur and contest polls, but he might be given the option of entering the Assembly via the Legislative Council.
High-voltage campaign
“Yogi Aditynathji’s election is unlikely to be low key, and the campaign will have a spin off in other States as a show piece,” said a senior leader. “The brownie points of a BJP Chief Minister not shying away from a bypoll in a State where previous chief ministers have done so is also important,” said the source.
“All this, of course, will happen only after the Presidential polls scheduled for July. As per the electoral college, an MP’s votes have more weightage than an MLA’s although votes from U.P. Assembly have the highest value,” said the source. Thus the bypoll could well be held by September.
Parrikar’s entry
Bypolls will also have to be held in Goa for Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to be elected to the Assembly. As of now, Mr Parrikar is still a Rajya Sabha MP from U.P., a high value vote in the Presidential polls.
The NDA is short of 18,000 votes in the total electoral college of 10,98,882 votes, with a halfway mark of 5,49,442 votes.
