Rajya Sabha polls: UP to witness keen BJP vs SP contest. How numbers are stacked

Uttar Pradesh is set to witness a high-pitched electoral battle for the Rajya Sabha elections on Tuesday, with BJP and Samajwadi Party making last-ditch efforts to make all their candidates win. The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded eight candidates and the opposition Samajwadi Party three for the 10 Rajya Sabha seats up for grabs from Uttar Pradesh.
While Akhilesh Yadav’s party has the numbers to send three candidates to the upper house, the ruling BJP is pinning hopes on cross-voting from the Samajwadi Party camp to make its eighth candidate, Sanjay Seth, sail through.
The seven other candidates fielded by the BJP are former Union minister RPN Singh, former MP Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, general secretary of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit Amarpal Maurya, former state minister Sangeeta Balwant (Bind) party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former MLA Sadhna Singh and former Agra mayor Naveen Jain. The SP has fielded actor-MP Jaya Bachchan, retired IAS officer Alok Ranjan and Dalit leader Ramji Lal Suman.
With four seats currently vacant, there are 399 MLAs in total available for voting. To get elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh, a candidate needs nearly 37 first-preference votes.
BJP has 252 MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly, and SP has 108 MLAs, along with Congress’ two seats. BJP ally Apna Dal (Sonelal) has 13 seats, NISHAD Party has six seats, RLD has nine seats, SBSP has six seats, Jansatta Dal Loktantrik has two seats, and BSP has one seat.
The Samajwadi Party needs 111 MLAs to see all three of its candidates through. Two of its MLAs are in jail and might not be able to turn up for voting. Apna Dal (Kamerawadi) leader Pallavi Patel, an ally of the Samajwadi Party, had earlier said that she would not vote as she did not agree with the SP decision to field Jaya Bachchan and Alok Ranjan.
RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary has directed all his party MLAs to vote for the BJP candidates. He communicated verbally to the party MLAs during a meeting on Sunday.
However, Manoj Pandey, the chief whip of the Samajwadi Party in the legislative assembly, exuded confidence that MLAs of the SBSP and the RLD will vote for the SP candidates, both parties have joined the BJP-led NDA.
“How will we fall short? Our people had contested (the 2022 UP Assembly elections) from the SBSP and the Rashtriya Lok Dal. And, basically, they are from the SP,” Pandey said.