UP council polls: Mayawati, Maurya elected unopposed

Lucknow, June 28 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and her cabinet colleague Swami Prasad Maurya were today elected unopposed to the state legislative council.

On the last day of withdrawals, returning officer to the legislative council bypolls declared the two elected as they were the only ones to have filed papers from their respective constituencies.

State minister Babu Singh Kushwaha collected the certificates on behalf of Ms Mayawati and Mr Maurya.

During scrutiny of papers on Tuesday, their papers were found in order.

Both the leaders are first timers in the upper house.

The Chief Minister had papers 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, 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.

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.

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