Plain sailing for Maya,12 others in Council polls

The Congress deal with the Rashtriya Lok Dal paved the way for uncontested election. Although there was no formal announcement,the RLD agreed to support the Congress,which repeated its retiring member Naseeb Pathan.

Besides Mayawati and Pathan,the candidates include Satish Chandra Jatav,Rishipal,Ram Kumar Kuriel,Subodh Parashar,Mohammad Athar Khan,Lalchand Nishad and Virendra Kumar Chauhan (all BSP),Balram Yadav,Ram Sunder Das Nishad and Yashwant Singh (SP),and Hridaya Narain Dikshit (BJP).

To win,a candidate needs 29 first preference votes.

The strength of the BSP in the Assembly is 226,but it was confident of managing the six extra votes it needed. The SP had the required strength of 87 MLAs,but the party had suspended 4 MLAs while one had been expelled and the loyalty of six others was suspect. Since there will be no election now,the party is assured of the victory of all three candidates. The Congress,with only 20 MLAs,was nine short of first preference votes,but following its deal with the RLD — which has 10 MLAs and has not fielded a candidate — its candidate was assured of victory.

In this election,the ruling BSP is set to increase its tally in the legislative council from 57 to 65 in the House of 100 members. The opposition Samajwadi Party’s strength will come down to 12 from 14.

The council comprises 38 members elected from the state assembly constituency,36 from the urban and rural local bodies constituency,eight from the teachers’ constituency,eight from the graduates constituency and 10 are nominated by the Governor on the advice of the CM.