With over two weeks remaining until the elections for 10 Rajya Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has announced the candidature of senior party leaders and current Rajya Sabha members Ram Gopal Yadav and Dharnaaj Parimal Nathwani.
The party said Yadav and Nathwani will file their nominations around 11 a.m. on Wednesday in the presence of SP president Akhilesh Yadav.
The elections have been necessitated by the expiry of the terms of nine Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh, including Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and BL Verma, BJP leaders Arun Singh, Geeta Shakya, Neeraj Shekhar, Brijlal and Seema Dwivedi, SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav and BSP's Ramji Gautam, on November 25.
The SP is certain to win two seats, but the rumours are that it is trying to win a third. As per UP Assembly sources, the SP has brought four forms while the BJP has brought eight forms. The party is yet to reveal the names of the remaining two candidates.
The SP, which is gearing to take on the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections, have devised a strategy for the Rajya Sabha elections. Speculation is that the party has promised tickets to its rebel MLAs and scorned BJP MLAs in the upcoming Assembly elections in exchange for backing SP candidates in the Rajya Sabha elections.
All elected members of the UP Legislative Assembly can vote in Rajya Sabha elections. The party requires 37 votes to win one seat. The SP has a strength of 95, excluding MLAs Rakesh Pandey, Pooja Pal, Vinod Chaturvedi, and Ashutosh Maurya, who voted for BJP candidate Sanjay Seth in the last Rajya Sabha elections.
Rebel MLA Pooja Pal is currently one of the BJP’s 19 state vice-presidents, so there is no question of her voting for the SP. Though Pandey cross-voted for the BJP during the last Rajya Sabha elections, along with Chaturvedi and Maurya, the SP leadership still hopes two MLAs will return to its fold. Despite seven MLAs cross-voting, the SP didn’t expel Pandey, Chaturvedi and Maurya.
The party believes it can get the votes of two Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party MLAs, Jagdish Narayan Rai and Mohammad Abbas Ansari. Rai openly voted for the SP in the last election. With their votes, the SP strategists believe they have a comfortable 99 votes. To ensure the victory of three candidates, they need 111 votes. This means the SP will need to secure 12 additional votes to ensure the victory of its third candidate.
So the party is eyeing BJP MLAs who fear losing their tickets. Some, according to unconfirmed reports, are in contact with the SP. They have been told that if they support the party in the Rajya Sabha elections, the SP could offer them tickets in the upcoming assembly elections. The Samajwadi Party has made the same offer to its rebel MLAs.
