Lucknow: Brushing aside rumors of rift with ally Rashtriya Lok Dal over candidature of Rajya Sabha, Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday announced the name of Jayant Chaudhury as his candidate for the upper house. RLD Chief Jayant would file nomination for RS seat on Friday with the support of SP.
The announcement of Jayant’s candidature for RS has made it clear that AKhilesh would stick to coalition Dharma and for this, he has even decided not to field wife Dimple Yadav for upper house. Earlier it was stated that SP would not give any of RS seat to its alliance partners and Dimple Yadav would file nomination as party candidate. The SP has already announced the name of its leader Javed Ali as RS candidate. Besides the party has decided to back the independent candidate Kapil Sibbal in RS polls.
According to senior SP leaders, with the announcement of Jayant’s candidature it is clear that party would field Dimple in the by-election for Azamgarh parliamentary seat. The Azamgarh seat has fallen vacant after its MP Akhilesh Yadav resigned in March this year. By poll for Azamgarh would be held on June 23.
With SP decided to field only three candidates for RS polls, it has become confirm that there would be no contest in UP. Elections for 11 vacant seats of Rajya Sabha from UP were to be held next week. With SP fielding three and BJP eight candidates, all would be elected unopposed.
As per the strength in the state assembly, ruling Bhartiya Janta Party can easily send seven while SP 3 of its candidates in the RS. In the UP assembly SP alliance has 125 while BJP & its allies 273 members. Both these parties would be having 14 additional votes for the 11th candidates. BJP is planning to field eighth candidate based on its 14 additional votes. To ensure victory in RS polls from UP 37 voters are required.
