Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council: 13 candidates have filed their nomination papers.
With 13 candidates, including nine from the BJP, filing their nomination papers to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, the stage is set for their unopposed election.
The four other candidates are from the Samajwadi Party (SP).
Scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held on Friday and the last day to withdraw the nominations is June 13 after which a formal announcement will be made, Returning Officer B B Dubey told PTI.
Prominent among those who filed their papers are Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and former minister Swami Prasad Maurya who quit the BJP just before the assembly elections and joined the SP.
The other BJP candidates who filed their nomination papers on Thursday are Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh, Dayashankar Mishra Dayalu, J P S Rathore, Jaswant Saini, Danish Azad Ansari, Banwari Lal Dohre and Mukesh Sharma.
Another candidate Narendra Kashyap was down due to ill-health and Satish Sharma filed the nomination on his behalf, Dubey said.
Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath and the party's state president Swatnatra Dev Singh among others were present during the filing of the nominations.
The tenures of Keshav Prasad Maurya and Panchayati Raj Minister Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh as members of the Legislative Council will end on July 6.
Minister of State for Cooperation J P S Rathore, Minister of State for Backward Classes Welfare Narendra Kashyap, Minister of State for Ayush Dayashankar Mishra Dayalu, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Industrial Development Jaswant Saini and Minister of State for Minority Welfare Danish Azad Ansari are not members of either of the House.
Mukesh Sharma is a senior office-bearer of the BJP.
The SP candidates -- Swami Prasad Maurya, Jasmir Ansari who joined party after leaving the Congress, Mukul Yadav, son of former MLA Sobaran Singh Yadav who vacated his Karhal seat for Akhilesh Yadav in the assembly polls, and Sahnawaz Khan who is said to be close to Azam Khan -- had filed their nominations in the presence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday.
Keshav Prasad Maurya had contested the 2022 assembly polls from Sirathu assembly seat in Kaushambi but lost to Samajwadi Party's Pallavi Patel.
Swami Prasad Maurya had also contested the recent assembly polls from Fazilnagar seat but was trounced.