Lucknow, August 1: Two BJP and a Samajwadi Party candidate filed their nominations on Monday for the by-elections to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council scheduled for August 11.

Gorakhpur regional president Dharmendra Singh Sainthwar and Kashi region vice president Nirmala Paswan filed their nominations as BJP candidates in the presence of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak and senior party leaders at the Central hall of the Vidhan Bhawan here.

SP candidate Kirti Kol, who was the party's candidate from the Chhanbe seat in Mirzapur constituency during the assembly polls and represents the tribal community, also filed her nomination. SP state president Naresh Uttam Patel, party MLAs Manoj Pandey, Ravidas Mehrotra and others were present during the occasion.

"Both our candidates are going to win with a huge margin," Pathak told reporters. Pathak said, "They (SP) know they do not have numbers to win. They did this only to have their names in newspapers." Samajwadi Party Names Tribal Candidate Kirti Kol for UP Legislative Council Bypoll.

Kol also urged all to support her and thanked her party leadership for fielding her. The two seats on which the bypolls are to be held fell vacant after the death of Samajwadi Party's Ahmad Hasan and the resignation of BJP's Thakur Jaiveer Singh, who won the recent assembly polls.

The 100 member Legislative Council at present has 73 BJP members, nine of Samajwadi Party, four independents, two from Teachers group, one each from Apna Dal (S), Nishad Party and Jansatta Dal. There are eight vacant seats in the Council.

In the assembly of 403 MLAs, BJP and its allies have a majority with 273 members (BJP-255, Apna Dal (S) -12 and Nishad Party- six) while SP has 111 members and its ally RLD has eight. Besides them, the SBSP has six members, Jansatta Dal and Congress have two members each and BSP has one. Going by the strength, the victory of BJP candidates is certain.