Amidst the rampant cross-voting by the MlAs of all the political parties all the 11 official candidates of the four political parties won the biennial elections of the Rajya Sabha from the State here on Saturday.
The lone BJP supported independent candidate Preeti Mahapatra lost the election.
Elections were held for the 11 seats and there were 12 candidates in the fray.
Of the 11 candidates won include seven are from the ruling Samajawadi Party, two from BSP and one each from BJP and the Congress.
Returning officer and principle secretary Assembly Pradeep Kumar Dubey said here that the polling was conducted in a peaceful and harmonious manner. He said against the total 403 MlAs in UP Assembly 401 cast their votes and all the votes were found to be valid and no candidate was eliminated during the counting of votes.
He said eight candidates including five of the Samajadi party, two of the Bahujan Samaj Party and one of the BJP won the election in the first round of total six rounds of the counting. Against the required number of 34 first preference votes for winning the elections the quota was reduced to 33.42 votes as two MlAs did not vote. He said rest of the three members were declared elected after six rounds of counting.
Ashok Siddhartha (BSP) polled maximum number of first preference votes 42, followed by Beni Prasad Verma (SP) and Satish Mishra (BSP) 39 each, Amar Singh (SP) 33, Reoti Raman Singh (SP) 30, Shiv Pratap Shukla (BJP) 36, Vishambahar Nishad (SP) 34, Sanjay Seth (SP) 35, Sukhram Yadav (SP) 35 and Surendra nagar (SP) 35 votes. The lone Congress candidate Kapil sibbal got 25 first preference votes. The Congress candidate Kapil Sibal won the election in the last and sixth round of counting after polling total of 33.54 votes. The BJP supported independent candidate Preeti Mahapatra got only 18 first preference votes and her total votes after six rounds were just 20.52. Her presence in the fray had forced the elections.
In a show of solidarity with the Congress, the senior Samajwadi party leader Shivpal Yadav cast his first preference vote for the Congress candidate Kapil Sibal.
Stung by the cross voting by the ruling party MlAs during the polling for the legislative council on Friday, the Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav led the operation from the front to control the damage. He arrived in the Vidhan Bhawan in the morning and supervised the operation from the party office in the state assembly building. His younger brother Shivpal Yadav and the state in charge of the Samajwadi party also reached the Tilak Hall, the venue of polling inside the state secretariat even before the polling commenced at 9 am in the morning and remained there till the end of the polling by 3 pm.
Trouble began in the first hour of polling when the Samajwadi party rebel MlA Guddu Pandit along with his MlA brother Mukesh Pandit reached the polling booth along with the BJP MlA Sangeet Som. Guddu Pandit voted for the BJP and showed the ballot paper to the Samajwadi party leader Shivpal Yadav which provoked the SP MlAs and ministers present there. They allegedly pushed Guddu Pandit and prevented him from casting his vote.
Guddu Pandit alleged that the SP MlAs Pawan Pandey and Abhay Singh allegedly snatched his ballot paper and threatened him of dire consequences for voting against the ruling party.
BJP MlA from the Khaga Fatehpur constituency Krishna Paswan alleges that she was prevented from voting. Another party MlA, Sangeet Som, alleges that there was misbehaviour with his party legislators. BJP MlA from Gorakhpur Rural Vijay Bahadur Yadav said he voted for the Samajwadi Party candidate. “I voted on the basis of development done by the Chief Minister and I am ready to make any sacrifice,” he said