UP council polls:Nomination papers of Mayawati,Maurya in order

Lucknow, June 26 (UNI) Nomination papers of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and her cabinet colleague Swami Prasad Maurya were found valid during scrutiny of the papers for the by-election to state Legislative Council.

Ms Mayawati, along with her lieutenant and state Revenue minister 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 Chief Minister 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.

The term of Mr Maurya's 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.

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.

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