The Samajwadi Party on Tuesday decided to field the Gorakhpur pediatrician Dr. Kafeel Khan from the Deoria-Kushinagar legislative council constituency for the upcoming MLC elections in Uttar Pradesh. Khan had hit the headlines for the first time in 2017 after the deaths of several kids due to lack of oxygen cylinders at Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College, where he worked as a pediatrician.

Khan is expected to file a nomination on Wednesday. Apart from this, Akhilesh Yadav-led SP has fielded Vasudev Yadav from the Allahabad Kaushambi seat.

Khan met Akhilesh Yadav today and presented a book written by him on the Gorakhpur hospital tragedy. According to sources, the Samajwadi Party is mulling to give priority to new people instead of old faces and the party may also deny tickets to non-performing sitting MLCs. Sources added that some MLA candidates, who fought UP assembly polls 2022 and lost by a narrow margin, may get a ticket in the MLC elections.

The MLC elections are to be held on April 9 for 36 seats of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council from the quota of the local body and the counting of votes will take place on April 12. All the major parties of the state have started finalizing the names of the candidates for the same. The process of the nomination started today.

The nomination for UP MLC elections will be held in two phases. In the first phase, for 30 seats, forms can be filed from March 15 to March 19 and scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on March 21, while names can be withdrawn till March 23. In the second phase, nomination papers for the remaining six seats can be filled till March 22. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on March 23 and names can be withdrawn till March 25.

At present, the Samajwadi Party has the highest number of seats in the legislative council. The SP has 48 seats, while the BJP has 36 seats. However, 8 MLCs of SP have now gone to BJP. At the same time, 1 MLC of BSP has also joined BJP. BJP will try to get a majority in the Upper House by getting maximum seats in this time’s legislative council elections.

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