Lucknow sources stated that Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmaker Anil Singh boasted about his act of betrayal, declaring, referring to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath "He is with Maharaj ji." Meanwhile the contest in one of 10 Rajya Sabha seats in UP was set to go down to the wire as the BJP worked to upstage the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati, who joined forces to defeat the ruling party in two of its key parliamentary strongholds.
According to sources there are 11 candidates for 10 Rajya Sabha seats and 37 first preference votes are needed for each seat. The BJP has enough lawmakers over 300 to win eight seats comfortably. The Samajwadi Party has 47 lawmakers, enough to win one seat. Presently Mayawati's party needs 19 votes to win one Rajya Sabha seat. As part of a deal that helped the Samajwadi Party (SP) win the two BJP seats where by-polls were held previously this month, Mayawati's candidate is to get the surplus SP votes.
Moreover if Samajwadi Party prioritizes its
deal with Mayawati for the by-polls which could set the stage for a larger
alliance for the 2019 national election between the rivals Akhilesh Yadav may
get his lawmakers to send Mayawati's nominee to the Rajya Sabha. Further
sources reported that Samajwadi lawmaker Nitin Agrawal is expected to
cross-vote for the BJP and his father Naresh Agarwal recently switched from SP
to BJP after being passed over for Jaya Bachchan.
