Rajya Sabha Elections: BJP will win 8 seats due to vote manipulation of SP MLAs, know

Voting is underway for 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Uttar Pradesh. Finally, party MLAs have played a 'game' with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in the Rajya Sabha elections. Three SP MLAs, including Rakesh Pandey, Abhay Singh and Rakesh Pratap Singh, reached the Assembly along with BJP leaders to cast their votes. All three SP MLAs have said they will vote according to their conscience and SP MLA Manoj Pandey also resigned as chief whip before the polls and voted in favor of the BJP. In this way, SP MLAs have spoiled Akhilesh Yadav's equation in the Rajya Sabha elections. SP MLAs Mukesh Verma and Hakim Chandra Bind have also voted in support of the BJP.

The rebellious attitude of four SP MLAs has dashed the hopes of the party's third candidate, Alok Ranjan, to reach the Rajya Sabha. It doesn't look easy for Alok Ranjan to win the Rajya Sabha elections, as the party already had low numbers as per the victory figures and now the whole game is spoiled due to cross voting of SP MLAs. Because of this, the victory of all the eight candidates of BJP is considered certain.

SP MLAs played Akhilesh's game

11 candidates are trying their luck on 10 Rajya Sabha seats. On the basis of the number of MLAs, SP's victory in two Rajya Sabha seats is certain and BJP's seven candidates are easy to win. In such a situation, there is a contest between BJP and SP for the 10th Rajya Sabha seat. The BJP has fielded its eighth Rajya Sabha candidate, Sanjay Sheth, whom the party has gone all out to win. All calculations of SP against BJP's strategy are going wrong. It is the leaders and MLAs close to Akhilesh who have ruined the SP's political calculations.

Jaya Bachchan, Ramjilal Suman and Alok Ranjan are in the fray in the Rajya Sabha elections from SP. Based on the selection, SP chief Akhilesh has kept Jaya Bachchan as number one, Ramjilal Suman as number two and Alok Ranjan as number three. While from BJP, RPN Singh, Chaudhary Tejveer Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Sangeeta Balwant, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Sadhana Singh, Naveen Jain and Sanjay Sheth are in the fray. BJP fielded Sanjay Sheth as its eighth candidate, due to news of cross voting of SP MLAs one after the other, it is expected that all BJP candidates will win.

In fact, on Monday night, the SP tried to achieve this goal through 'dinner diplomacy' so that it could win its third Rajya Sabha seat, while the BJP tried to win its eighth seat by holding a meeting of NDA MLAs. 8 MLAs did not attend SP's dinner. SP MLAs Rakesh Pandey, Pooja Pal, Abhay Singh, Rakesh Pratap Singh, Manoj Pandey, Vinod Chaturvedi, Maharaj Prajapati and Pallavi Patel did not attend Akhilesh's meeting. It was only after this that it was believed that these SP MLAs could vote in favor of the BJP.

Ritesh Pandey has quit BSP to join BJP, due to which his father MLA Rakesh Pandey has now said that he will vote according to his conscience. Rakesh Pratap Singh, Abhay and Manoj Pandey are seen joining BJP despite being SP MLAs. Abhay Singh is considered to be close to Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya. Raja Bhaiya has openly stood with the BJP, leading even Abhay Singh to say that he will vote according to his conscience. Apart from this, Rakesh Pratap Singh and Manoj Pandey also played with Akhilesh Yadav.

How many votes does SP-BJP need?

A Rajya Sabha candidate will need the first rank votes of 37 MLAs to win. SP has 108 MLAs. The party is in a position to field two candidates. While the third candidate needs three first preference votes to win. The BJP has managed to win seven Rajya Sabha members with the help of its NDA allies, but the party has only 29 first preference votes for the eighth candidate. In such a situation BJP needs eight first preference votes to make its eighth candidate victorious.

Understand the math of votes of MLAs for Rajya Sabha elections

Let us understand the voting formula in Rajya Sabha elections. A Rajya Sabha seat requires the support of 37 MLAs in UP. Although the number of assembly seats in UP is 403, currently 4 seats are vacant. Thus there are total 399 MLAs. The SP needs the support of 111 MLAs to win three Rajya Sabha seats, while the BJP needs the votes of 296 MLAs. Both SP and BJP do not have this number, due to which both are eyeing each other's MLAs. In this game of checkmate, BJP has the upper hand and has aligned four SP MLAs with its camp in the Rajya Sabha elections.