With battle lines being drawn for the 10 seats of Rajya Sabha in Uttar Pradesh and election to take place on March 23, all eyes will be now on Independents, incarcerated law makers and turncoats even as parties were keeping a tab on their legislators.
There are 11 candidates in the fray for the 10 seats, out of which nine are from the BJP and one each from the SP and the BSP. On its own strength in Assembly, the BJP could win eight seats hands down while one seat would go to the Samajwadi Party.
The BSP, Congress, RlD and leftover votes from Samajwadi Party could ensure victory for BSP candidate Bhimrao Ambedkar but the fear of defection has made the battle very interesting.
SP MlA from Sirsaganj (Ferozabad) Hariom Yadav and BSP MlA from Mau Mokhtar Ansari are in jail. They are likely to vote for the respective party. Three Independents – Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, Aman Mani Tripathi and Vinod Saroj hold the key to the opposition success.
Raja Bhaiya made his intentions clear when he attended the dinner party hosted by Rakesh Pratap Singh at a five-star hotel in lucknow on Wednesday. But suspense henags heavy on the other two.
“Every person is important in this election. One vote means a step closer to victory,” state BJP general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said.
What has made this election interesting is the sudden defection of Nitin Agarwal to the BJP after his father Naresh Agarwal was denied a Rajya Sabha ticket by the SP and subsequently switched over to the BJP. He even declared that Nitin would ensure the defeat of opposition candidate in the Rajya Sabha poll.
This election has seen many twists and turns in last one week. BJP’s alliance partner Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party threw tantrums with senior minister and SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar staying away from the anniversary celebration of Yogi government. Rajbhar could only be placated after his meeting with BJP president Amit Shah in New Delhi after which he declared that he and his legislators would vote for the BJP.
Meanwhile, Congress legislature party held a lunch on Thursday for seven party MlAs in which state chief Raj Babbar, outgoing RS member and presently observer for the polls Pramod Tiwari along with several other leaders attended.
BSP chief Mayawati also threw a dinner to her legislators on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, Returning Officer of Rajya Sabha polls, Poonam Saxena said that all arrangements have been made for free and fair polls. Polling will be held between 9 am and 4 pm at Tilak Hall of Vidhan Bhawan on Friday while counting of votes would be taken up from 5 pm the same day.
Ajay Naik from Bihar has been rushed as a special observer for the elections while Additional CEO (UP) Govind Raju N S will be the observer for the elections.
Saxena said that polling would be done through open voting where a voter has to show the ballot paper to party agents before casting his vote.
The BJP and its ally have 324 members in the assembly, SP 47, BSP 19, Congress seven, RlD-1, Nishad Party one and Independents three. One seat is vacant due to the death of BJP member.