Akhilesh Yadav files nomination for legislative council

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday filed his nomination papers for biennial elections to the state Legislative Council.

Senior Samajwadi Party leader and the party's official spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary also filed his nomination papers. Election for 13 seats to the state's upper house of legislature was scheduled for April 26.

The decision to send Alhilesh to the upper house was taken soon after he was sworn in as the state's youngest chief minister on March 15 last.

He had not contested the recently-concluded state assembly elections, since he was already a member of the Lok Sabha from Kannauj. He proposes to resign from that seat, which is likely to go to another member of the Mulayam family.

This was Akhilesh's second term as a Lok Sabha member and he was widely seen as the architect of change in the Samajwadi Party, which touched an all time high tally of 224 in the 403-member UP assembly at the March 2012 state elections.

Earlier on Wednesday, nominations papers to the state legislative council were filed by five SP leaders including State Revenue Minister Ambika Chaudhary, who had lost the assembly election from his hometown Ballia at the extreme Eastern end of UP.

Madhu Gupta, Naresh Chand Uttam, Ram Sakal Gurjar and Vijay Yadav were the other SP leaders who submitted their nomination papers.