Lucknow, Feb 27 (UNI) Amidst cross voting by the MLAs of Samajwadi Party (SP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged 8 out of 10 Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh for which polling and counting was held on Tuesday.
The state's main opposition party, which fielded three candidates, including sitting Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan, national general secretary and former minister Ramji Lal Suman and former bureaucrat Alok Ranjan, managed to win only two seats.
BJP candidates who won the election included sitting Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi, former Union Minister RPN Singh, Sangeeta Balwant, Sadhna Singh, Amarpal Maurya, Tejveer Singh, Naveen Jain ex-MP and Sanjay Seth.
From SP Jaya Bachchan, who received 41 votes and Ramji Lal Sumar with 40 votes emerged victorious. SP's third candidate Alok Ranjan, who is former adviser to party chief Akhilesh Yadav, managed to get only 19 votes.
The day-long exercise, which witnessed a shift in loyalties at the last moment, witnessed cross voting by at least 7 SP MLAs in the favour of the BJP candidates. The day full of suspense unfolded with the resignation of SP MLA Manoj Kumar Pandey, who resigned from the post of Chief Whip in the Legislative Assembly, and voted in favour of the BJP candidates in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak.
The members of Jayanat Chaudhary led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which parted ways from SP and joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) recently, voted in favour of BJP candidate Sanjay Seth. Besides, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Uma Shankar Singh also voted in the favour of the BJP candidate.
There were reports of cross voting by the members of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP) MLAs, but it was refuted by the party chief Om Prakash Rajbhar, who claimed that all his members were intact and voted for the BJP candidate.
The day witnessed exchange of barbs between the ruling BJP and the main opposition party SP. While the BJP leaders claimed victory of all their 8 candidates, SP accused the ruling dispensation of indulging in horse trading and conversion.
It may be noted that there are 403 members in the Legislative Assembly. While 4 seats are vacant due to the demise of sitting members, three MLAs, including 2 of SP and 1 of SBSP, are lodged in jail. Report said that one of the SP MLAs did not vote.
Reacting on cross-voting by the party MLAs, SP president said that the election for the third Rajya Sabha seat was a test to identify true friends.
He tweeted, "Action will be taken against all the MLAs who cross-voted, Our third Rajya Sabha seat was actually a test to identify the true comrades and to know who is with the PDA from the heart and who is against the backward classes, Dalits and minorities from the conscience. Now everything is clear, this is the victory of the third seat." UNI AB SSP