MLC Forms Reach 30 Over Two Days; Still No Papers Filed

Nomination filing for the Varanasi Division Graduate and Teachers seats in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council entered its second day on Wednesday with the same pattern as Tuesday: forms were collected, security deposits were paid through challan, and no candidate actually lodged nomination papers.

Across the two days, twenty aspirants or their representatives have taken forms for the Graduate constituency and ten for the Teachers constituency, nomination office figures showed. On Wednesday alone, eleven Graduate forms and five Teachers forms were issued after the required deposit challans were attached.

Among those who collected Graduate papers on day two were Ashutosh Sinha of the Samajwadi Party and independents Beni Madhav, Dev Kumar, Chandra Prakash Gupta, Pankaj Kumar Singh, Ranjeet Kumar Yadav, Preeti Singh, Wahidullah Khan, Tushar Goswami, Arvind Kumar and Dr Pankaj Kumar Gautam. Teachers forms went to Pramod Kumar Mishra of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Lal Bihari Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, and independents Ritika Dubey, Kapil Dev Yadav and Chetanarayan Singh. Most visitors were advocates or proposers rather than the candidates themselves.

The Election Commission schedule, notified through the divisional commissioner, keeps filing open through 6 October. Scrutiny is on 7 October. Withdrawals close on 9 October. Polling is listed for 23 October from 8 am to 4 pm, with counting on 27 October. The vacancies arise when Graduate member Ashutosh Sinha and Teachers member Lal Bihari Yadav complete their tenure on 6 December.

Security deposit remains Rs 5,000 for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates and Rs 10,000 for others, paid under the prescribed account head before a form is issued. Candidates are still required to complete Form 26 affidavits covering criminal cases and assets, gather ten proposers from the relevant Legislative Council roll, and meet the age and citizenship tests set out for Council contests.

Day-one collection had stood at nine Graduate and five Teachers forms, with zero filings. Wednesday simply extended that queue. Returning officers have not treated the quiet filing counter as unusual this early in the window; many candidates prefer to wait until papers and proposers are fully ready before submitting.

The nomination room at the additional commissioner's compound continues to operate on the published daily hours. Anyone collecting a form still has nearly a week to convert it into a lodged nomination, provided the affidavit and proposers are in order. Until the first set of papers is actually filed, the official count of candidates in the fray remains zero even as thirty forms sit with prospective campaigns.

Party offices in the city are still assembling proposer lists and asset affidavits. That paperwork, more than the printed form itself, usually decides when a candidate walks into the filing room. Wednesday's count of thirty forms taken and zero papers lodged simply shows how early the window still is.

Voters on the Graduate and Teachers rolls should treat the current list of form collectors as interest, not as a final ballot. Names can drop out before 6 October, and new aspirants can still join. The first lodged nominations, when they come, will be the point at which the contest becomes officially visible.