Several major political parties have released their lists of candidates for the upcoming biennial Vidhan Parishad or MLC elections in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar on June 20. The last date for filing nominations was June 9.

Thirteen seats are vacant in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council out of which nine are held by the BJP and four are with the Samajwadi Party (SP). For the elections on June 20, nine candidates have been nominated by the BJP and four candidates have been nominated by the SP. Since the 13 nominations match the 13 vacancies with no other candidates contesting so far, the 13 candidates are expected to be elected unopposed.

For Maharashtra, 10 seats of the state legislative council are up for grabs.

The Bihar legislative council will have seven vacant seats on July 21 after the retirement of the members.

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Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP)

Uttar Pradesh: BJP has fielded 9 candidates in UP including seven ministers -- Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya, Chaudhary Bhupendra Singh, JPS Rathore, Narendra Kashyap, Dayashankar Mishra Dayalu, Jaswant Saini and Danish Azad Ansari. Along with them Mukesh Sharma and Banvarilal Dohre have also been nominated.

Maharashtra: Pravin Yashwant Darekar, Ram Shankar Shinde, Shrikant Bharatiya, Uma Girish Khapre and Prasad Minesh Lad have been nominated for Maharashtra Legislative Council.

Bihar: Hari Sahni and Anil Sharma have been nominated for Bihar Legislative Council.

Shiv Sena

Maharashtra: Sena has given the opportunity to Sachin Ahir and tribal leader Amshya Padvi to contest in the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls.

Samajwadi Party (SP)

Uttar Pradesh: SP has nominated Swami Prasad Maurya, Mukul Yadav, Shahnawaz Khan and Jasmer Ansari for the upcoming MLC polls in Uttar Pradesh.

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Indian National Congress (INC)

Uttar Pradesh: Congress would be left without any representation in the UP.

Maharashtra: Congress has named ex-minister Chandrakant Handore and Mumbai party President Bhai Jagtap for the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)

Maharashtra: The ruling ally Nationalist Congress Party has nominated former senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse for the upcoming MLC biennial polls. The second candidate of NCP is the present Chairman of the Legislative Council Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar.

Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD)

Bihar: RJD’s candidates for the MLC polls include the state party secretary, Munni Devi, the party’s youth wing president Qari Sohaib, and Ashok Kumar Pandey for the Bihar MCL Polls

Janta Dal (United)

Bihar: The JD(U) has nominated the party’s national secretary Ravindra Prasad Singh, and Afaq Ahmed Khan, the party’s national general secretary for the upcoming MLC polls in Bihar on June 20.

(Edited by : Priyanka Deshpande)