Lucknow: Rajya Sabha’s elections for 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh took an interesting turn on Tuesday after it was discovered that a mysterious 11th candidate had submitted the nomination as an independent candidate. However, on Wednesday, the whole affair took a new turn with five MLAs from the Bahujan Samaj Party rebelling against BSP Rajya Sabha candidate Ramji Gautam. These MLAs had allegedly met with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday at the party’s new Lucknow office.
The 11th independent candidate, Varanasi-based lawyer Prakash Bajaj, is said to have the backing of the Samajwadi Party. The five BSP MLAs, namely Aslam Chaudhary, Aslam Rainee, Mujtaba Siddiqui, Hakim Lal Bind, and G clearly Jatav, came to the UP assembly to retrieve their names as ‘Prastavak’ from the BSP candidate Ramji Gautam. Now the nomination of BSP candidate Ramji Gautam could also be in jeopardy. Additionally, there were rumors that more BSP MLAs were voting against the party’s official candidate.
There are currently 11 candidates for 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh. If any candidate does not withdraw their nomination, the vote is safe for the election.
The Electoral Commission had announced the elections on October 13. Notification for these seats was issued on October 20 and the last date for submission of nominations was October 27. The nomination papers will be reviewed one day later. Names can be withdrawn before November 2 and voting will take place from 9 am to 4 pm on November 9. Votes will be counted starting at 5 pm on the same day and the results will be declared.
Based on the number of MLA in eight seats, the victory of the BJP seems certain, while SP will easily win a seat. The fight is for the 10th seat, so the BSP is in the fray. It was previously believed that on the basis of the number, the BJP could present the ninth candidate, but it did not. Meanwhile, the BSP will now have to manage the number of MLAs from other parties in the event of a vote due to the independent candidate entering the fray.
Earlier Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates collectively submitted their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections. Present on the occasion were Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Swatantra Party State Chairman Dev Singh, Senior Deputy Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma and many other senior state government officials and ministers.
On the same day, all the BJP candidates arrived at the Kushabhau Thakre Hall of the party’s state headquarters with their supporters. Swatantra Party State Chairman Dev Singh and State Secretary General (Organization) Sunil Bansal congratulated everyone. After this, all the candidates under the leadership of the state party chairman, Swatantra Dev Singh, went to the legislative party office of the BJP.
So far, the BJP has officially submitted eight candidates, including Hardeep Singh Puri, Arun Singh, Haridwar Dubey, Brijlal, Neeraj Shekhar, Geeta Shakya, BL Verma, and Seema Dwivedi. The Samajwadi Party has redeployed Ram Gopal Yadav. The BSP, despite not having required numbers, has deployed Ramji Gautam.
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