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LUCKNOW: Rajya Sabha elections for 10 seats of UP is set to be a thriller, with BJP on Thursday fielding former MP Sanjay Seth as its eighth candidate on the last day of nomination – a shrewd move aimed at dashing Samajwadi Party‘s hopes to get its three nominees elected unopposed.
With 11 candidates in the fray now for 10 vacant seats from the state’s quota, voting will now take place on Feb 27.
Seth, a prominent real estate developer, turned up at UP assembly to submit his nomination papers along with BJP state chief Bhupendra Chaudhary, deputy CM Keshav Maurya and ministers Suresh Khanna, Jitin Prasada and Ashish Patel.
Seth was earlier elected to Rajya Sabha in 2016 as an SP candidate, but switched over to BJP later and represented the saffron party in the House between 2019 and 2022. BJP’s other seven candidates – RPN Singh, Navin Jain, Sangeeta Balwant, Sadhna Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Tejveer Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi – filed their nominations on Wednesday.
Given UP assembly’s current strength of 399 MLAs, each candidate will require the support of at least 37 MLAs to get elected. Hence, the eight BJP candidates will require an accumulated strength of 296 votes.
NDA currently has a strength of 277 MLAs – BJP (252), Apna Dal(S) (13), NISHAD (6) and SBSP (6). It would thus need to garner 19 additional votes.
With RLD (9 MLAs) and Raja Bhaiyya’s Jansatta Dal Loktantrik (2) being inclined in favour of NDA, BJP will still be eight votes short to get its eighth candidate elected.
However, BJP’s move has heightened the worries of SP, which has 108 MLAs, and is expected to receive the support of two Congress MLAs, taking its tally to 110.
This will still be one short of the required strength of 111 to ensure election of all three candidates – Jaya Bachchan, Ramji Lal Suman and Alok Ranjan.
BSP lone MLA is yet to announce his party’s stand, amid indications that party may direct him to abstain. All eyes will be on the possibility of cross-voting, and if that happens, it could sharpen the square-off between NDA & SP.
The SP camp has already faced a spell of trouble, with Sirathu MLA Pallavi Patel showing signs of defiance.
With 11 candidates in the fray now for 10 vacant seats from the state’s quota, voting will now take place on Feb 27.
Seth, a prominent real estate developer, turned up at UP assembly to submit his nomination papers along with BJP state chief Bhupendra Chaudhary, deputy CM Keshav Maurya and ministers Suresh Khanna, Jitin Prasada and Ashish Patel.
Seth was earlier elected to Rajya Sabha in 2016 as an SP candidate, but switched over to BJP later and represented the saffron party in the House between 2019 and 2022. BJP’s other seven candidates – RPN Singh, Navin Jain, Sangeeta Balwant, Sadhna Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Tejveer Singh and Sudhanshu Trivedi – filed their nominations on Wednesday.
Given UP assembly’s current strength of 399 MLAs, each candidate will require the support of at least 37 MLAs to get elected. Hence, the eight BJP candidates will require an accumulated strength of 296 votes.
NDA currently has a strength of 277 MLAs – BJP (252), Apna Dal(S) (13), NISHAD (6) and SBSP (6). It would thus need to garner 19 additional votes.
With RLD (9 MLAs) and Raja Bhaiyya’s Jansatta Dal Loktantrik (2) being inclined in favour of NDA, BJP will still be eight votes short to get its eighth candidate elected.
However, BJP’s move has heightened the worries of SP, which has 108 MLAs, and is expected to receive the support of two Congress MLAs, taking its tally to 110.
This will still be one short of the required strength of 111 to ensure election of all three candidates – Jaya Bachchan, Ramji Lal Suman and Alok Ranjan.
BSP lone MLA is yet to announce his party’s stand, amid indications that party may direct him to abstain. All eyes will be on the possibility of cross-voting, and if that happens, it could sharpen the square-off between NDA & SP.
The SP camp has already faced a spell of trouble, with Sirathu MLA Pallavi Patel showing signs of defiance.
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