The battle for the biennial elections for 10 seats of Rajya Sabha on March 23 is hotting up with the ruling BJP and SP-BSP combine stepping up their efforts to mobilise support for their candidates. Both BJP and SP have resorted to dinner diplomacy for keeping their flocks together.
The ninth candidate of the BJP is locked in close contest with the BSP candidate backed by Samajwadi Party and Congress. 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.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is under tremendous pressure to ensure the victory of the BSP candidate. ‘’The BSP supported us and we won the by-polls to two lok Sabha seats, now it’s our turn to pay back,’’ Akhilesh told party leaders at a meeting recently.
Rattled by the defection of its MlA Nitin Agarwal and to compensate for his loss, the Samajwadi Party is making desperate efforts by enabling two MlAs presently in jail, to cast their votes.
SP MlA from Sirsaganj (Ferozabad) Hariom Yadav and independent MlA from Mau Mokhtar Ansari are in jail. SP and BSP leaders on Monday met UP Chief Election Officer, T Venkatesh to plead that the two MlAs be allowed to cast their votes.
BSP sources said party Rajya Sabha MP and senior advocate Satish Mishra is likely to move lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court seeking direction to the concerned authority to allow the two MlAs to cast their votes.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has convened a meeting of party MlAs at his official residence on Wednesday. The party is likely to firm up its strategy for ensuring the victory of its ninth candidate. At the meeting, BJP legislators would be allotted the candidate whom they are supposed to vote and a mock voting would also be held, so that there was no confusion on polling day.
The BJP on its own strength in Assembly could easily win eight seats and one seat would go the Samajwadi Party. The BJP has forced the contest by fielding a ninth candidate.
The BJP’s move has thrown a spanner in the fledgling unity efforts of SP-BSP-Congress. The BSP has fielded BR Ambedkar who is banking on the support of surplus votes of the SP, 7 votes of Congress and 19 of his own party. One candidate needs 37 first preference votes to win the election.
An SP MlA has invited all party MlAs for dinner at a local five star hotel on Wednesday while the SP chief has called a meeting of party legislators for important consultations.
An SP MlA said that party leaders will brief the legislators about the method of polling for Rajya Sabha elections. He said that a decade ago, former SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav himself had erred in casting vote for Rajya Sabha elections. On the eve of polling on March 22, Akhilesh Yadav is hosting a dinner for party MlAs at a five star hotel.
SP sources said Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shivpal Yadav and party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav were likely to attend the dinner.
After its humiliating defeat in Gorakhpur and Phulpur lok Sabha by-polls, the BJP has also stepped up its efforts to put the flock together. Cabinet minister Suheldeo Bhartiya Samaj party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, who had been sulking in recent weeks at the BJP met BJP president Amit Shah in Delhi on Tueday.
After the meeting, Rajbhar maintained that all differences with the BJP had been sorted out. The SBSP has four members in the Assembly, who are crucial for getting the ninth BJP nominee to get elected to Rajya Sabha.
On Monday, Rajbhar boycotted the first anniversary celebrations of Yogi government and said that the government in the last one year had failed to deliver. Urban Development minister Suresh Khanna had also gone to Rajbhar’s residence to persuade him but he had refused to relent.