Amidst reports of disquiet among the allies of the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav is working on a strategy to further consolidate the alliance.
The SP is likely to nominate the Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary for the Rajya Sabha. SP and its allies RLD (8) and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (6) have a total strength of 125 MLAs and they will be able to elect three candidates easily to the Rajya Sabha. As many as 11 Rajya Sabha members from Uttar Pradesh are retiring in July next.
The 11 Rajya Sabha MPs retiring from UP include five of the Bharatiya Janata Party, three of the Samajwadi Party, two of Bahujan Samaj Party and one member of the Congress. UP sends 31 members to Rajya Sabha. Of this, at present, 22 MPs are from BJP, five from SP, three from BSP and one from the Congress.
Given the strength of 403 elected members in the UP assembly, each RS candidate will be requiring at least 37 votes. With 273 MLAs, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance will easily be able to elect seven members. As per the strength of 403 elected members in the 18th UP assembly, each RS candidate will be requiring at least 37 votes.The contest, therefore, will boil down to the 11th seat for which both SP and BJP would seek support of other parties, including Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya's Jansatta Dal Loktantrik and Congress which have two MLAs each and Mayawati's BSP which has just one MLA.