LUCKNOW: Amid fears of cross-voting in the high-pitched electoral battle between NDA and Samajwadi Party-Congress combine for 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, eight SP MLAs did not turn up for a dinner that party chief Akhilesh Yadav had hosted for legislators at his residence on election eve, sources said.
BJP had initially fielded seven candidates and SP three. However, the election has turned into a cliffhanger with BJP fielding ex-MP Sanjay Seth as its eighth candidate. Sources said the eight SP MLAs who skipped the dinner were Rakesh Pandey, Abhay Singh, Manoj Pandey, Rakesh Pratap Singh, Vinod Chaturvedi, Maharaj Prajapati, Pooja Pal and Pallavi Patel.
Raja Bhaiya & RLD in tow, NDA now just 9 short of magic mark
Even as both NDA and SP-Congress were engaged in parleys with other parties on Monday to muster the requisite strength to ensure victory for their candidates, BJP received a fillip with Raja Bhaiyya’s Jansatta Dal-Loktantrik pledging support of its two MLAs to it.
Jayant Chaudhary had already indicated the support of his RLD for BJP earlier this month after Bharat Ratna was awarded to his grandfather, Chaudhary Charan Singh. On Monday, RLD’s nine MLAs met CM Yogi Adityanath and joined NDA allies for a strategy session at Lok Bhawan.
Given the current strength of UP assembly (399), each candidate requires the support of 37 legislators to sail though. With RLD’s nine MLAs and Raja Bhaiya’s two, the numbers of NDA (BJ, AD(S) 13, Nishad 6, SBSP 6) swell to 288. SBSP MLA Abbas Ansari is lodged in jail and this brings down the tally to 287. This is nine MLAs short of the required strength (296) to see all eight BJP candidates through. BJP is pinning its hopes on cross-voting and abstentions.
SP needs the support of 111 MLAs to see its three candidates — Ramji Lal Suman, Jaya Bachchan and Alok Ranjan — through. SP’s strength of 108 in the assembly comes down to 106 with two of its MLAs, Irfan Solanki and Ramakant Yadav, lodged in jail on criminal charges. Even with Congress’s backing of two MLAs, SP is three short of the magic number.
Sources said SP has been harping on its PDA (an abbreviation that Akhilesh Yadav has coined for enlisting the support of OBCs, dalits and minorities, respectively) narrative to counter BJP.
The BJP camp is confident of ensuring the win of its 8th candidate. A senior leader who has is tasked with managing votes told TOI that the party is confident of getting the required first-preference votes. But if that doesn’t happen, the candidate will certainly sail through with the help of second-preference votes, he said, adding: “No matter how hard SP camp tries, it will be short of a minimum of two votes, if not more.”
BJP’s other candidates are RPN Singh, Navin Jain, Sangeeta Balwant, Sadhna Singh, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Chaudhary Tejveer Singh and Amar Pal Maurya. But all eyes will be on its eighth candidate, Sanjay Seth.
BJP had initially fielded seven candidates and SP three. However, the election has turned into a cliffhanger with BJP fielding ex-MP Sanjay Seth as its eighth candidate. Sources said the eight SP MLAs who skipped the dinner were Rakesh Pandey, Abhay Singh, Manoj Pandey, Rakesh Pratap Singh, Vinod Chaturvedi, Maharaj Prajapati, Pooja Pal and Pallavi Patel.
Raja Bhaiya & RLD in tow, NDA now just 9 short of magic mark
Even as both NDA and SP-Congress were engaged in parleys with other parties on Monday to muster the requisite strength to ensure victory for their candidates, BJP received a fillip with Raja Bhaiyya’s Jansatta Dal-Loktantrik pledging support of its two MLAs to it.
Jayant Chaudhary had already indicated the support of his RLD for BJP earlier this month after Bharat Ratna was awarded to his grandfather, Chaudhary Charan Singh. On Monday, RLD’s nine MLAs met CM Yogi Adityanath and joined NDA allies for a strategy session at Lok Bhawan.
Given the current strength of UP assembly (399), each candidate requires the support of 37 legislators to sail though. With RLD’s nine MLAs and Raja Bhaiya’s two, the numbers of NDA (BJ, AD(S) 13, Nishad 6, SBSP 6) swell to 288. SBSP MLA Abbas Ansari is lodged in jail and this brings down the tally to 287. This is nine MLAs short of the required strength (296) to see all eight BJP candidates through. BJP is pinning its hopes on cross-voting and abstentions.
SP needs the support of 111 MLAs to see its three candidates — Ramji Lal Suman, Jaya Bachchan and Alok Ranjan — through. SP’s strength of 108 in the assembly comes down to 106 with two of its MLAs, Irfan Solanki and Ramakant Yadav, lodged in jail on criminal charges. Even with Congress’s backing of two MLAs, SP is three short of the magic number.
Sources said SP has been harping on its PDA (an abbreviation that Akhilesh Yadav has coined for enlisting the support of OBCs, dalits and minorities, respectively) narrative to counter BJP.
The BJP camp is confident of ensuring the win of its 8th candidate. A senior leader who has is tasked with managing votes told TOI that the party is confident of getting the required first-preference votes. But if that doesn’t happen, the candidate will certainly sail through with the help of second-preference votes, he said, adding: “No matter how hard SP camp tries, it will be short of a minimum of two votes, if not more.”
BJP’s other candidates are RPN Singh, Navin Jain, Sangeeta Balwant, Sadhna Singh, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Chaudhary Tejveer Singh and Amar Pal Maurya. But all eyes will be on its eighth candidate, Sanjay Seth.
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