With all possibility of horse-trading and cross-voting, decks have been set up for a crucial political brinkmanship by ruling Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Bharatiya Janta Party for the biennial elections to elect 12 members of the legislative Council on Friday.All the political parties have issued whip for their members to be present during the polling with specific directions to vote for respective candidates.
However, anti-defection law is not enforced in this election as the polling would be done through secret ballot. With apprehension of horse-trading looming large during the elections, the fate of the 13 candidates would certainly depend on the cross-voting as all the three political parties, had given one additional candidate each requiring support from other political factions. SP has given the highest number of eight candidates followed by three of BSP and two of the BJP.
Returning officer and principal secretary (Assembly) Pradeep Kumar Dubey told media persons here on Thursday that all arrangements for a smooth conduct of voting and thereafter counting have been completed. He said voting will start at 9am and will continue till 4pm and thereafter counting of votes will start from 5pm till the announcement of the results. Dubey said there are around 404 voters or members of
the assembly who are eligible to vote. Senior State official, Amit Ghosh, is the Central observer of the elections while the Election Commission could also depute some senior officers to monitor the polling and counting process. The winning candidate would be required at least 31 first preferential votes to win in the first round.
Samajwadi Party has already held a meeting of its legislators here on Wednesday where they instructed all the necessary information about the polling. SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav is camping in the city for the polls and was in touch with the MlAs. The eight candidates of the party are legislative Council leader and state Health Minister Ahmed Hasan, Ramesh Yadav of Etah, Sarojni Agarwal of Meerut (all three re-nominated), Ramjatan Rajbhar of Azamgarh, Saheb Singh Saini of Saharanpur, Ashok
Bajpai of Hardoi, Virendra Singh Gujjar of Shamli and Ashu Mallick.Yadav expressed confidence that all the eight candidates would win the first round with over 31 preferential votes in their credit. Congress with 28 members, who announced to support the SP candidates, on Thursday declared that they would support secular parties as their main aim is to defeat communal forces.
The decision was taken at Congress legislature Party meeting held on Thursday. With this announcement, BSP could also hope of getting Congress support which would also enable them to win all the three seats confortably as they already had support of eight MlAs of Rastriya lok Dal. SP required at least 248 votes to ensure clear win of all its eight candidates and presently is short by 18 votes as its strength in the assembly is 230 besides they have a support from several independents and other smaller parties.
But support of 28 members of the Congress will certainly give them an edge in this polls. On the other hand BSP, who have given three candidates, held a meeting of its 80 MlAs here. In the absence of party president Mayawati, senior party leaders, including leader of the Opposition in the assembly Swami Prasad Maurya and others addressed the MlAs. The three candidates of the BSP are leader of the Opposition in the Council Nasimuddin Siddique, Dharamveer Singh Ashok and Pradeep. BSP, which has 80 members in the assembly along with 8 RlD members is still short of 5 votes for its third candidate .
The RlD move, that comes a day ahead of legislative council polls, gains significance amid speculations horse trading of BSP MlAs by BJP which is short of 23 votes to get it’s second candidate, Dayashankar Singh elected. BJP has given two candidates—laxman Acharaya and Dayashankar Singh. BJP has 41 members in the assembly and short by 23 votes for its second candidate while none of the parties have supported them yet.
According to sources, a dozen BSP MlAs, essentially from the upper caste, are reported to have met BJP vice-president and general secretary in charge, Om Mathur recently with a promise to support the BJP candidates in return for a ticket in 2017 assembly elections. Several Thakur and Brahmin MlAs of the ruling party or their supporter could also shift their vote for BJP.
BJP leaders are also trying to poach into the Congress upper caste MlAs in their support. BJP state president laxmikant Bajpai denied that BJP was engaged in any sort of horse trading. ‘Other parties have also fielded extra candidate but they are not being questioned. I can assure that BJP’s both candidates will get required number of votes and win the elections,’ Bajpai claimed.
Dayashankar’s polling agent and Thana Bhawan MlA Suresh Rana said, ‘Various MlAs of different political parties are impressed with leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party national president Amit Shah and they want to vote for Dayashankar. Party is sure that he will win the election’. Of the retiring 12 members, whose term expires on January 30, seven are from BSP, three from the ruling SP and two from BJP.
The ruling SP has the highest number of 230 MlAs, followed by 80 of BSP, 41 of BJP, 28 of Congress, eight of RlD, four of Peace Party, six independents, two of Quami Ekta Dal and one each of TMC, NCP, Apna Dal and IMC besides one member is nominated. The members whose term would expire include Mr Hasan, Mr Siddiqui, Ashok Kumar Sidharth, Pratap Singh Bahgel, lokesh Prajapati, Mahesh Arya,Dr Om Prakash Tripathi and Dharamprakash Bharati(all BSP), Dr Sarojni Agarwal and Ramesh Yadav (both SP), Vinod Pandey and Babu Ram MCom(both BJP).
Presently, the Opposition BSP has majority in the Upper House with 59 members while SP has 21 members in the 100-strong Upper House of the UP legislature. BJP has seven, Congress two and RlD has one member in the House. While two seats are vacant, nine MlCs represent the apolitical teachers’ quota and four belong to the Independent group.