UP Rajya Sabha Polls: In Setback for BSP, BJP Wins 9 of 10 Seats

In a setback for the BSP, the BJP managed to win nine seats out of 10 in the Rajya Sabha elections. SP candidate Jaya Bachchan emerged victorious on the tenth seat.

Responding to the BSP’s claims of sabotage, the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Keshav Prasad Maurya said that the party doesn’t stoop to ‘cheap’ tricks in order to win elections.

The BJP’s winning candidate Anil Agarwal expressed his gratitude and delight at having cliched a Rajya Sabha seat from the state.

Speaking to ANI, he said:

Senior BSP leader Satish Mishra alleged that the BJP had won the elections by using all its “money power and state powers”.

Speaking to ANI, Mishra said:

PM Modi congratulated all the winning candidates on Twitter.

Addressing a press conference following the party’s victory, state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that the victory had exposed the "opportunistic face" of the SP.

“The people of the state have seen the opportunistic face of the SP. It can take votes but not give votes in return,” he said, referring to the SP’s victory with the help of BSP votes in the recent Lok Sabha bypolls in Gorakhpur and Phulpur.

The chief minister said the SP's "opportunistic character" was not new and that "the people of the state have seen it over the years".

Adityanath said it was time to be careful to avoid falling into a deep pit in the future.

The BJP in Uttar Pradesh won nine out of 10 seats while SP candidate Jaya Bachchan was also declared a winner.

BJP candidates who won are Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Ashok Bajpai, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Sakal Deep Rajbhar, Kanta Kardam, Anil Jain, Harnath Singh Yadav and G V L Narasimha Rao and Anil Kumar Agarwal.

The Election Commission has reportedly disqualified one vote each of the BJP and the BSP, while counting the votes.

The counting of votes for Rajya Sabha elections begins after clearance from the Election Commission, reported ANI.

The SP and BSP has demanded that the EC disqualify the votes of SP MLA Nitin Agarwal and BSP MLA Anil Singh for allegedly hiding their votes. The EC will reportedly begin counting after scrutinising the CCTV camera footage.

While Singh claims to have shown his vote to polling agent Lalaji Verma, Agarwal claims to have shown his vote to Lalai Singh.

The Election Commission has denied permission to begin the counting of votes for Rajya Sabha election due to some objections in ballot papers. Reports suggest counting will begin only after EC gives clearance.

Raghuraj Pratap Singh AKA Raja Bhaiyya, an independent MLA who was a part of Akhilesh Yadav’s cabinet tweets support for Yadav, says, "I am with Akhileshji".

The former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh tweeted a photo with Raghuraj Pratap Singh, thanking him for the support.

As of noon, Times of India reported that a total of 187 votes had been cast by the BJP, 37 by the Samajwadi Party, 17 by the Bahujan Samaj Party, 7 by the Indian National Congress, 5 by the Apna Dal, 4 by the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party, and 1 by the Rashtriya Lok Dal.

BSP candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar stands to lose two votes, as his supporters, a Samajwadi Party MLA and a Bahujan Samaj Party MLA are in lodged in jail, NDTV reported.

Two other independent candidates will likely vote for the BSP, the report added.

To secure a seat to the Upper House of Parliament from UP, a candidate needs 37 first preference votes.

Since the BJP and its allies have 324 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly right now, the saffron party can easily bag eight of the 10 seats and will still be left with 28 surplus votes as the the four-MLA strong Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) has decided to go with the ruling party.

Samajwadi Party leader Nitin Agrawal, son of SP-leader-turned-BJP-supporter Naresh Agrawal, hit out at the SP in a statement to ANI. He declared support for the BJP, adding that the people would vote for a candidate who serves them, rather than one who entertains them.

As the day draws on, more surprises are likely in the Uttar Pradesh Rajya Sabha elections. Voting began at 9 am at Tilak hall in the UP Vidhan Sabha . Voting will close at 4 pm, and the votes will be counted from 5 pm.

BSP MLA Anil Singh told ANI that he cast his vote for the BJP in the 2018 Rajya Sabha Elections for the 10 seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya told ANI that the BJP would easily win all nine seats it fielded candidates for. Maurya added that the Rajya Sabha would witness the entry of nine more BJP candidates following these elections.

Reiterating their confident front, the Samajwadi Party said that the fear of cross-voting doesn’t arise in their case, however, SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav added that the BJP’s MLAs would cross-vote in the SP & BSP’s favour.

NDTV reported that all seven of the Congress’ MLAs have cast their votes for BSP candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar. The vote-share was agreed upon before the elections, along with the alliance between the BSP and SP.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met his party MLAs, along with Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, shortly after voting began for the 10 UP Rajya Sabha seats.

Om Prakash Bahadur, President of the Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) told ANI that Nishad Party MLA Vijay Mishra and BSP MLA Anil Singh were present at the meeting of the UP BJP & its allies on 22 March, indicating their support to the BJP.

ANI reported that voting has begun for 26 Rajya Sabha seats in 6 states: Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana.

Samajwadi Party leader Rajendra Chaudhary said that they were confident Samajwadi Party candidate Jaya Bachchan and Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Bhim Rao Ambedkar, who the SP is supporting, would win the Rajya Sabha elections.

The four-MLA-strong Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), after being placated by BJP chief Amit Shah, and the Apna Dal (Sonelal) with nine MLAs, have decided to vote for BJP nominees.

"We are standing with the BJP. We had held a meeting of our MLAs and it was decided that we will strongly support the BJP," national president of Apna Dal (S) Ashish Patel told PTI on 22 March.

The declaration of support from the Apna Dal (S) comes days after SBSP chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, a Cabinet minister in UP government, declared his party's support for the BJP candidates.

With a day left for voting for the biennial Rajya Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP may heave a sigh of relief after successfully mollifying its allies.

The SP that had found itself in a soup after it was likely to lose one of the 47 votes of former SP leader Naresh Agarwal’s son Nitin Agarwal, has likely got itself out of the crisis.

The dinner on 21 March night hosted by Akhilesh Yadav might rekindle hopes for both the SP and the BSP, with independent MLA from Kundla, Raghuraj Pratap Singh’s presence. Raja Bhaiyya, as he is more popularly known, is likely to side with the SP.

Singh’s vote might be crucial for the BSP, which is dependent on the 10 surplus votes promised by the SP. Nitin Agarwal is the son of former SP leader Naresh Agarwal, who recently joined the BJP.

Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Yadav, who had skipped the strategy meet chaired by Akhilesh, was also present at the dinner.

The Samajwadi Party (SP) is confident of the victory of its candidate Jaya Bachchan and BSP candidate Bhimrao Ambedkar. “This is a Rajya Sabha election, you cannot hide and vote. So cross-voting should not be expected. Those who are with us are with us and we are confident of our people. Shivpal Yadav Ji and Raja Bhaiyya, both of them are with us,” SP MLC Sunil Singh Sajan told News18.

(With PTI and ANI inputs)