Mayawati, Maurya set to get elected unopposed to UP council

Lucknow, June 25 (UNI) Ending the suspense over her future course of political strategy, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today filed her nomination papers for the by-election to state Legislative Council seat.

Ms Mayawati, along with her lieutenant and state minister Swami Prasad Maurya are set to be elected unopposed in the by-elections to two seats of the state Legislative Council from assembly constituency.

Both the leaders are first timers in the upper house.

The CM is contesting from the seat which fell vacant due to the death of BSP leader Barkhu Ram Verma. The term of the seat expires on July 6, 2010.

Mr Maurya's term of the seat will expire on January 30,2009. The seat fell vacant following the death of SP member Vikramaditya Pandey.

With this contest, Ms Mayawati will not be able to vote in the Presidential elections as she will have to resign from her Rajya Sabha seat within 14 days of the notification of her council seat.

Now all eyes would be on the move of the Bahujan Samaj Party about the fate of state minister Satish Chandra Mishra, also a Rajya Sabha member, who is yet to get elected to wither or the house of the state legislature.

Today was the last date of filing the nominations and the two BSP leaders were the only ones to have filed papers for their respective seats. Official notification of the winning candidates will be made on June 28 after the expiry of the withdrawals.

While the BSP president had not contested the recently-held Assembly elections, Mr Maurya was defeated in the polls.

Soon after filing the nomination papers in two sets, Ms Mayawati told reporters that she decided to contest the legislative council polls as she wanted to treat all the 403 Assembly seats at par. ''My election from any of the 403 Assembly seats was confirmed. But had I contested an Assembly bypoll, the seat would have received undue benefit over the other seats...In an effort to maintain equality I decided to contest the Legislative Council elections,'' she explained.

She said her contesting an Assembly bypoll would have also given the Opposition ammunition to target her and her government in the coming days.

'' Leader of the opposition Mulayam Singh Yadav has often been charged with concentrating on the constituency from where he wins while other areas remain underdeveloped,'' she said.

The nomination papers will be scrutinised tomorrow. June 28 is the last date of withdrawls.

In the Upper House at present, the ruling BSP has only 12 members while the SP has 38 and the BJP 24. After the polls, the BSP will go up to 14.

At present in the legislative council, the SP has the highest 38 members, followed by BJP-24, BSP-12, Congress -3, RLD-6, Samajwadi Janata Party (Rashtriya)-2, Teachers group-9 and independents-4.

Three seats are vacant.

The Upper House of the state is constituted by 38 members from the assembly constituency, 36 from local bodies, eight from teachers constituencies, eight from Graduate constituencies and ten are nominated.

UNI