Gamble played by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) in the council polls boomeranged after their second candidate, Daya Shankar Singh, lost the polls by a big margin paving way for the Samajwadi Party (SP)and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to sweep the polls with both winning one extra seat.It was Congress which played a key role with 28 of its legislators who voted for SP and BSP in the name of voting for secular parties, resulting into a big defeat for BJP. It was also a setback for BJP as the Party leaders are openly claiming of having support of more than 50 ruling party MlAs in their kitty. The result had also given a big relief for the SP particularly as they already performed well during the last by-elections for Assembly in which they won eight of the 11 seats.
The elected SP candidates were Ahmad Hasan, Ramesh Yadav, Ramjatan Rajbhar, Sahab Singh Saini, Ashok Bajpai, Virendra Singh Gurjar, Sarojini Agarwal and Ashu Malik. Hasan is Health Minister and also leader of the House in the legislative Council. BSP nominees who won are leader of the Opposition in the Upper House, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Dharmveer Ashok and Pradeep. The BJP candidate who could make it to the portals of the Upper House was lakshman Acharya, while the second candidate
Dayashankar Singh had to bite the dust. The state Assembly has 403 members and first preference votes of 31 MlAs were needed to ensure victory of one candidate for the Upper House. SP with 230 MlAs won eights seats as its additional candidate emerged victorious with surplus votes of Congress and backing from some other parties and Independents. BSP with 80 MlAs won all the three seats it had contested with the support from RlD which has eight MlAs and some surplus votes from Congress. BJP, which has 41 MlAs, could ensure victory of only one candidate as it failed to utilise its 10 surplus votes to make
its additional candidate successful. According to sources, while 11 the candidates got elected in the first round and in the second round, Pradeep of BSP got 24 votes while the BJP's Dayashanker received just 17 votes. Other BJP candidate who won the polls laxman Acharya received 34 votes. Though BJP candidate lost the elections, but still around 10 MlAs of other political parties have voted in their favour.
Surprisingly, BSP which was seen as a dark horse in the race for the elections, got support of 101 MlA for their three candidates when their strength in the assembly was just 80. The ruling SP got 247 votes for their eight candidates against their total strength of 229. There is also report that some SP MlAs too supported BSP candidate on the directive of the party leaders to ensure defeat of the BJP candidate. While BJP leaders putting out a brave face said that there is nothing to worry with the defeat as 10 MlAs of other parties had support their candidate.
Congress said its MlAs have voted to defeat communal forces. "Congress MlAs have used their votes judiciously in order to defeat the second candidate of BJP which has fielded an additional nominee," MlA Rita Bahuguna Joshi said after casting her vote. According to reports, Congress has decided to allow eight of its members to cast their votes in favour of the third BSP candidate in order to defeat the second BJP nominee.
The remaining 20 Congress MlAs have been asked to vote for the eighth SP candidate. Earlier amidst apprehension of horse-trading and cross voting, 399 members out of the 403 members casted their vote. The total of the voters was curtailed down to 403 from 404 after a SP MlA Kaptan Singh Rajput was disqualified for conviction by a court.
Those from SP who not voted included Waqar Ahmed Shah,who is in ICU while Prem Prakash is also reported to be ill in Uttarakhand. The Peace Party MlA Akhilesh Singh from Rae Bareli is busy with holding a massive rally in his constitutuency to celebrate the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The nominated member Peter Fanthom, is on a foreign trip to Bangkok.However, BSP MlA from Basgaon Vijay Kumar,who is accused in amurder along with his wife,came secretly and voted.
Returning officer and state Assembly principal secretary Pradeep Kumar Dubey claimed that the polling passed on a peaceful note. Interestingly Rampur again was in the limelight in the elections, as the first voter was Kazim Ali Khan alias Naved Mian of Congress from Rampur while the last voter was State urban development minister Mohammad Azam Khan. The SP camp was concern with the delay on the arrival of Azam Khan but he managed to give his vote in the last moment. Both the Khans of Rampur are strongly opposed to each other.
Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey, several senior UP ministers including Shivpal Singh Yadav, Azam Khan and Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiiya were among the first to cast their votes. UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, though not a member of the state assembly, visited Vidhan Bhawan and discussed the voting pattern with the party leaders including Ram Gopal Yadav.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Electoral officer, Jaideep Anand has been rushed by Election Commission as the special observer for this election. Senior UP IAS officer Amit Ghosh is the Central observer for the elections. SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav targetted the BJP for trying to engage in horse-trading but expressed confidence that the communal party has failed in its evil designs.
"Eight of the SP candidates will win in the first round of the counting," he claimed. But BJP leaders countered the SP allegation saying that they have never followed unethical path in the election. Party's state president laxmikant Bajpai,who is also an MlA, was confident about the victory of both the party candidates.
"We never indulged in horse-trading but we think MlAs would vote for BJP hearing their inner conscience," he added. Hectic political activities were witnessed on Thursday night with SP, BSP and BJP leaders making all out efforts to woo the MlAs in their favour.