BJP's Bahoran Lal Maurya elected unopposed to UP Legislative Council

Lucknow: BJP's Bahoran Lal Maurya was elected unopposed on Friday in the byelection to a seat of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, an official said.

Special Secretary and Returning Officer of the UP Legislative Assembly Mohammad Mushahid announced the election of Maurya while issuing a notification to that effect.

Maurya was given the certificate of election after the nomination withdrawal period ended on Friday, the official said.

Maurya had filed his nomination as a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) on Tuesday. As there was no nomination from the opposition parties against him, Maurya was declared elected unopposed.

The notification for the byelection of this seat was issued on June 25, while the last date for nomination was July 2. After scrutiny of nomination papers on July 3, the date for withdrawal of nomination was fixed till July 5. The voting was to be held on July 12.

This seat fell vacant due to resignation of Samajwadi Party member Swami Prasad Maurya on February 20 this year. His term was was to end in July 2028.

Swami Prasad Maurya had formed his own political party named Rashtriya Shoshit Samaj Party after resigning from the council membership and the Samajwadi Party (SP).

Bahoran Lal Maurya has been an MLA from Bareilly's Bhojipura seat in 1996 and 2017. In the assembly elections held in the year 2022, he lost to Shahzil Islam of the SP by a margin of more than 9,400 votes.

According to the website of the UP Legislative Council, the 100-member House currently has 78 members of the BJP and 10 members of the SP. Besides, there is one member each from Apna Dal-Sonelal, Nishad Party, Jansatta Dal (Democratic), Rashtriya Lok Dal, Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party and Teachers' Party. There are four Independent members in the Council while two seats are vacant.