The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday announced its candidates for the upcoming 2026 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council elections from the Graduates’ and Teachers’ constituencies.
According to the party’s official release, the BJP Central Election Committee approved five candidates for key constituencies across the state.
BJP candidates for UP Legislative Council Elections 2026
- Awanish Kumar Singh has been nominated from the Lucknow Graduates’ constituency.
- Manvendra Pratap Singh will contest from the Agra Graduates’ seat.
- Hari Singh Dhillon has been fielded from the Bareilly-Muradabad Teachers’ constituency.
- Umesh Dwivedi will represent the party from the Lucknow Teachers’ constituency.
- Shrichand Sharma has been named the BJP candidate from the Meerut Teachers’ constituency.
However, the BJP is yet to announce its candidate for the Ghaziabad seat.
According to party sources, the BJP has given significant importance to candidates’ grassroots connect, organisational experience, and influence among teachers and graduates while selecting nominees for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh MLC elections.
Other political parties have also become active for the high-stakes polls and are likely to announce their candidate soon.
The current MLCs’ tenure is ending in December. So far, the Election Commission has not announced the dates for the MLC elections.
What are graduate and teacher constituency MLC elections?
The Graduate and Teacher Constituency MLC elections in Uttar Pradesh are a special electoral process through which educated citizens and teachers elect their representatives to the Legislative Council, the upper house of the state legislature.
Out of the 100 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, 8 seats are reserved for Teacher Constituency MLCs and 8 seats for Graduate Constituency MLCs.
Who can vote in these elections?
Unlike regular elections, the general public cannot vote in these polls. To become eligible as a voter in the graduate constituency elections, a person must have completed at least three years since obtaining a graduate degree or an equivalent qualification before the voter registration application date.
Similarly, teachers eligible to vote must fulfill the criteria prescribed for the teacher constituencies.
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