Yogi confident of BJP gaining majority in UP Legislative Council

Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) [India], April 9 : After casting vote in the elections for the members of the Legislative Council, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after almost four decades will attain a majority in the Upper House.
"After almost four decades, a ruling party will attain a majority in the Legislative Council. Anti-land-mafia task force is taking back encroached land from the mafias. We won't raze shanties of poor on encroached land until we rehabilitate them," said Adityanath in Gorakhpur.

The polling for 36 Legislative Council seats spread across 35 local authorities constituencies is underway on Saturday.
Of the 100-member Legislative Council, the BJP currently has 34 MLCs, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has 17 seats and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has four members. The Congress, Apna Dal (Sonelal), the Nishad party and Nirdal Samooh have one member each in the House.
The elections for the Legislative Council are taking place a month after the BJP retained the power in the state for the second time by bagging 273 seats along with its allies in the Assembly polls.
The biennial polls were earlier scheduled to be held in two phases on March 3 for 29 constituencies and March 7 for six constituencies but they were later rescheduled keeping in view of the Assembly polls in the state, held in seven phases.
The counting of votes will take place on April 12.