Byelection voting for the two vacant seats at the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council began on Monday. The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Samajwadi Party have fielded candidates for the seats.
The polling reportedly began at 9 am in Lucknow and will continue till 4 pm. The counting of votes will be beginning at 5 pm.
According to the reports, the results are likely to be declared by the evening.
The BJP has fielded Manvendra Singh and Padamsen Chowdhary while Ram Jatan Rajbhar and Ramkaran Nirmal are contesting for the Samajwadi Party.
Only members of the assembly are eligible to vote in the legislative council elections.
Based on its numerical strength in the legislative assembly, the BJP is comfortably placed to secure victory for both its candidates.
Reportedly, an Assembly Secretariat official said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Finance Minister Suresh Khanna were among those who cast their votes in the morning.
The notification for the bypolls was issued on May 11 with May 18 the last day to file nominations.
The bypolls to the two seats were necessitated by the resignation of Laxman Acharya and the death of Banwari Lal Dohre. The tenure of Acharya, who was made the governor of Sikkim, was to last till January 2027 while Dohre's term was to expire in July 2028.
The BJP has 255 MLAs in the 403-member assembly while allies Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 and the NISHAD Party six.
The Samajwadi Party has 109 MLAs and its ally the Rashtriya Lok Dal has nine. The Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party has six MLAs, the Congress and the Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) have two each and the Bahujan Samaj Party has one.
(With PTI inputs)
