In Uttar Pradesh, an eighth candidate for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) filed his nomination on Thursday for the Rajya Sabha elections, paving the way for a contest on February 27 against the Samajwadi Party (SP). At the State Assembly complex, industrialist and former SP leader Sanjay Seth submitted his nomination papers in front of State BJP president Bhupendra Chaudhary, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, and other prominent figures.
Eleven contenders are vying for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats that will become open in the State with Mr. Seth’s nomination. On February 16 starting at 11 a.m., the nomination papers will be examined.
Earlier, seven BJP candidates — Sudhanshu Trivedi, former Union Minister R.P.N. Singh, former Agra Mayor Navin Jain, former State Minister Sangeeta Balwant, former MLA Sadhna Singh, Amarpal Maurya and Chaudhary Tejveer Singh — filed their nominations on Wednesday. “We will emerge victorious,” said Mr. Chaudhary, after Mr. Seth joined the list of candidates on Thursday.
With the ruling party fielding its eighth candidate, a high-pitched contest is on the cards for one of the seats. In the 403-member Assembly, with four seats remaining vacant, each candidate needs the votes of 37 MLAs to emerge victorious. On its own, the BJP has 252 members; while its partners Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 members, Nirbal Indian Shoshit Hamara Apna Dal (NISHAD) has six, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has nine and Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) led by Om Prakash Rajbhar has six; the Jansatta Dal Loktantrik has two MLAs and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has one.
In order to elect all eight of its MPs, the BJP requires 296 votes. With 108 MLAs on its own, the SP has two more than its partner, the Congress. To gain three Rajya Sabha seats, the SP will require the support of 111 MLAs, which means it will require one more vote. “If the SP gets 111 votes, it will get all the three seats. But, if it fails to get even a single vote, then we may see second preference votes coming into play like the 2022 Haryana Rajya Sabha polls, where despite getting fewer first preference votes, the BJP-backed independent candidate emerged victorious,” said Asad Rizvi, a political analyst based in Lucknow
Pallavi Patel, the leader of Apna Dal (Kamerawadi), who was elected on the SP ticket in the 2022 Assembly polls, stated her disapproval of the party’s choice of Jaya Bachchan and Alok Ranjan as candidates and made it clear that she would not cast a ballot in an election where each MLA’s vote is expected to be crucial.
