Lucknow: The spectre of horse-trading on Thursday loomed large over the biennial elections for 11 Rajya Sabha and 13 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council seats as the two extra candidates remained in the fray with tomorrow being the deadline for withdrawal of nomination. Returning Officer and Principal Secretary (Assembly) Pradeep Kumar Dubey said none of the 12 candidates for Rajya Sabha and 14 candidates for the Legislative Council withdrew their papers today (Thursday).
The contest for Rajya Sabha became interesting after Independent candidate Preeti Mahapatra, a social worker, filed her papers at the last moment as the 12th candidate for the 11 seats going to polls next week, thereby forcing voting. Several BJP MLAs and members of smaller parties besides some Independents proposed the name of 37-year-old Preeti, who heads the woman wing of Narendra Modi Vichar Manch and flaunts her picture with the PM on social media.
The fact that 16 BJP lawmakers have signed Preeti’s two sets of nominations has made Congress accuse her of being a BJP candidate who could encourage horse-trading. She, however, maintained that it should not be dubbed as cross-voting and rather as “aatma ki awaaz” (conscience vote).
“I guess cross-voting is not barred here. Lawmakers can freely take a call on which candidate they wish to support,” said Preeti, who heads NGO Krishnaleela Foundation in Gujarat.
Preeti’s entry might queer the pitch of Congress aspirant and noted lawyer Kapil Sibal, who needs five extra votes for victory.
