Unlike Mayawati and Akhilesh, Yogi to enter Vidhan Sabha, not upper house

Yogi Adityanath is a five time Lok Sabha member

In Uttar Pradesh, the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is keen to break a 10-year-old tradition of state politics. Unlike his immediate two predecessors, current Chief Minister Adityanath Yogi would seek direct election to become a member of the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha.

Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, who served as the chief minister of the state from 2012 to 2017, and Bahujan Samaj Party's Mayawati, the chief minister from 2007 to 2012, were members of the state’s Vidhan Parishad, or Legislative Council.

Neither contested a direct election after having taken the oath of office. Both gained membership to the House by being elected to the state’s upper house. Unlike Vidhan Sabha members who are directly elected, Vidhan Parishad members are elected by an electoral college. Of India’s 29 states, seven states have Legislative Councils.

Top BJP sources said Adityanath would seek entry to the Legislative Assembly by contesting a bypoll. A chief minister who isn’t a member of either of the houses needs to be elected to one of the two within six months of being sworn in. Adityanath was administered the oath of office on March 19. It is, however, as yet unclear the assembly seat from which he will contest to enter the 403-member UP assembly.

In 2009, not just the BJP but rest of the Opposition had criticised Manmohan Singh for taking the Rajya Sabha route to enter Parliament. They had argued that the prime minister of the country should be directly elected by the people and enter Lok Sabha. Earlier, a constitution review commission had also suggested that the prime minister should be a directly elected member of Parliament.

Adityanath is a five time Lok Sabha member. He quit his Lok Sabha seat of Gorakhpur after being sworn in as the chief minister of UP.

Akhilesh Yadav was a Lok Sabha member from Kannauj when elected chief minister of UP in 2012. He subsequently quit his Lok Sabha seat and was later elected to the Vidhan Parishad.